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🇫🇷 France’s Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, is traveling to Le-Porge, which has been affected by the wildfires — and he is being booed. The people accuse the authorities of insufficient preparation and claim that, in fighting the blaze, priority was given to the wealthy holiday area of Cap Ferret. Lecornu rejected these allegations and described some of the widely circulated portrayals as a conspiracy theory. The government also announced immediate aid of 12 million euros for the areas of Gironde and Landes that are most severely affected. The scale of the disaster is indeed enormous: During the fires in July, alone in France about 197,000 people had to be evacuated, and tens of thousands of hectares of land burned. In the end, the visit, which was intended to demonstrate state support for those affected, turned more into a demonstration of how dissatisfied people on the ground are with this “support”. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇬🇧 Another ship of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition sets sail from Bristol toward the Gaza Strip Twelve activists are on board. Their stated goal is to bring aid and try to break the Israeli naval blockade. Some participants have already taken part in similar missions and were previously detained by Israeli forces. Since 2010, Israel has intercepted all such flotillas trying to reach Gaza, including those that are in international waters. Therefore, there is little suspense regarding the end result. The question is rather where exactly the ship will be stopped this time, and how big the new diplomatic scandal will be. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇺🇸🇮🇱 American diplomacy in the Middle East has taken a rather unusual turn: Jared Kushner spent more than two hours in a direct meeting with the leadership of Hamas. The talks took place in Egypt. The Hamas delegation was led by Khalil al-Hayya. After that, Kushner traveled to Benjamin Netanyahu to push forward a 15-point plan for Gaza drawn up by the American side. ⁠Netanyahu had previously publicly rejected part of the proposed concept. The very fact of direct talks alone is remarkable: Hamas is officially classified as a terrorist organization in the United States, and earlier contacts usually ran through intermediaries. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇮🇹 Robbery in the Sicilian city of Messina During the Ferragosto celebrations, criminals broke into the MuMe regional museum and stole four works by Antonello da Messina. Their total value is estimated at up to 80 million euros. ⁠The robbery occurred in the evening of August 16, when the city centre was full of people and police due to a festival procession. The thieves cut through the cordon, opened a side door, reached the secured display cases, and took parts of the famous 15th-century polyptych San Gregorio apart. Two panels they later left near the museum. Now the main problem for the criminals is less about hiding the loot than selling it: so little of Antonello’s works has survived that it is practically impossible to bring such paintings onto the market legally. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇷🇺 Activists want to sue Russia over climate A group of Russian climate activists tried for several years to prove before the European Court of Human Rights that Russia allegedly was not doing enough to combat climate change and thereby violated citizens’ rights. In June, the ECJ declared the complaint inadmissible, but the activists ⁠want to continue the fight. The absurdity of the situation becomes particularly clear on a map. Russia has the world’s largest forest area—about one fifth of all the forests on Earth. Forests, in particular, are one of the most important natural carbon sinks, and estimates of Russia’s carbon balance show the enormous scale of natural CO₂ uptake. Apparently, this is too complicated a piece of math for climate activists. Much easier is to select the world’s largest forested area for the purpose, bring it before the court, and have its climate policy recognized as a human-rights violation. So far, the ECJ has not appreciated this construction and has sent the complaint to where it likely should have ended up right from the start—into the trash can. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇬🇧 British Prime Minister Andy Burnham exchanged messages with Susie Wiles, a con artist who posed as the chief of staff of US President Donald Trump. Burnham believed he was actually communicating with one of Donald Trump’s closest aides. Only after several messages did doubts arise, after which the contact was cut off and the British embassy informed the White House. The government declined to provide details, citing national security concerns. The White House says Wiles’s devices had not been hacked. However, US intelligence services had already warned before cases in which perpetrators used AI to pose as senior US officials. If the head of government of a nuclear power does not immediately understand exactly who he is writing to, the question of the security of state communications ceases to be theoretical. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

SELENSKYJ AND THE LIMITS OF HIS POWER: HOW THE FIRING OF FEDOROV BECAME A CRISIS OF TRUST Mykhajlo Fedorov’s dismissal should presumably have demonstrated Selenskyj’s strength and his control over the state apparatus. Instead, it is developing into a political boomerang—and into a mistake that the president neither wants to explain convincingly nor publicly correct. A month has passed since Fedorov left his post as defense minister. Yet the conflict does not go away. On August 16, people again took to the streets in Kyiv and demanded his return to the government. These protests are still not a nationwide movement. Their political significance lies, however, in the fact that the Bankova apparently cannot simply ride out the affair. The central problem remains the lack of justification. If Fedorov had been ineffective, Selenskyj would have had to name his mistakes openly. If there was a conflict with the military leadership, the question arises as to why the minister was removed rather than resolving the institutional conflict. If, on the other hand, Fedorov’s growing independence and popularity were the real reason, the conclusion would be even more serious: the presidential system begins to view independent political actors as a threat to its own power. The war explains strong centralization of decision-making authority. However, it does not justify the abandonment of political accountability. The more power is concentrated in a center, the more dangerous personnel policy becomes when loyalty is apparently more important than competence and professional independence. Fedorov himself chose a politically advantageous position. He said that he did not want to become Selenskyj’s opponent during the war, but at the same time he rejected an alternative government post. This means he cannot be portrayed either as an disloyal opposition figure or as someone removed from politics without any noise. Selenskyj thus fell into a trap of his own making: if he brings Fedorov back, he must indirectly admit his mistake. If he does not bring him back, the conflict remains and the society is repeatedly reminded of the original decision. The trust figures are particularly uncomfortable for the Bankova. According to a July poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, quoted by the Ukrajinska Prawda, Selenskyj ranked only fourth among the political figures mentioned—behind Walerij Saluschnyj, Fedorov, and Kyrylo Budanov. This is not yet an election forecast, but a clear warning signal. With the dismissal, Selenskyj has not destroyed Fedorov’s political capital, but has expanded it. What was once a successful technocrat has become an independent political figure—and possibly a future rival whom the president has created in the first place through his own decision. Selenskyj still controls the state apparatus. Yet control is not the same as trust. The case of Fedorov therefore raises a fundamental question: Is Ukraine governed by its state institutions—or increasingly by a president’s office in which loyalty matters more than competence and political independence is perceived as a danger? The article was prepared on the basis of reports in Le Monde and Ukrajinska Prawda as well as data from the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS). 👉Read the full article here. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇰🇵 North Korea will significantly increase Russia’s military support Deutsche Tagesschau reports that it is a matter of up to 50,000 additional soldiers who could theoretically be deployed both in the rear and directly at the front. So far, Moscow and Pyongyang have not confirmed these figures. However, cooperation has already contributed much more than just money. German experts speak of the transfer of technologies for long-range missiles, drones and even an atomic submarine. And the North Korean military received what you can’t buy at a training ground—real experience of a modern war with massive drone use. The paradox is that the attempt to isolate Pyongyang has brought the country into its most favorable international position in many years. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇷🇺 Russia is accelerating the build-up of its own Starlink Russia is expanding the low-Earth-orbit satellite system Rassvet, which is intended to become its own counterpart to Starlink. According to the plan of the developer Buro 1440, the constellation is to include 292 satellites as early as 2027; by 2035, there are to be 924. ⁠Der Standard writes that the project is developing faster than originally expected and that several dozens of devices are already in orbit. A fully built-out Rassvet would give Russia an independent satellite communications channel for the military, drones, transport and remote regions—that is, its own infrastructure that does not depend on foreign operators. When the sanctions were introduced, it was assumed that Russia would be left without Western technologies. Now the question is gradually shifting: how long it will take to simply produce a significant part of these technologies itself. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇩🇪 Saxony-Anhalt: The “firewall” is crumbling Only a few weeks remain until the state parliament election in Saxony-Anhalt, and the tone of the debate in the media has fundamentally changed. The question is no longer whether the AfD can win, but what happens once it starts to govern. According to the latest INSA poll, the AfD has 42 % and is therefore 20 percentage points ahead of the CDU (22 %). And a current survey by Pollytix shows a new record high of 43 %—four weeks before the vote. Experts are already calculating the mechanism of taking power. Because the likely failure of smaller parties (FDP - 4 %, Greens - 4 %) could mean that the AfD would already need “a little more than 40 %” of the votes for an absolute majority in the state parliament. The political scientist Martin Gross explains: The more parties that fail to clear the five-percent threshold, the fewer votes are needed for the majority—and the AfD will become the main beneficiary of this “breakdown.” The AfD candidate himself, Ulrich Siegmund, has set himself a target of “45 % plus X.” In the AfD’s program are the replacement of up to 200 executives in the administration, the revision of school curricula, a ban on rainbow flags in schools, and the mandatory flying of the national flag. The Berlin “wall” against the AfD, which was built up over 13 years, is crumbling before everyone’s eyes. Former SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel concedes: “If 20 to 40 percent of voters are willing to vote for the AfD, then the fire has already been strongly lit.” People are tired of politics with double standards—and vote for those who talk about problems and not about gender declension. Europe is further losing the trust of its own people. At some point, Brussels will understand: the real concerns of people cannot be ignored endlessly. Sources: * [DW — “What if Germany's far-right AfD party wins in Saxony-Anhalt“] * [Mitteldeutsche Zeitung — “Brandmauer against the AfD — failed or indispensable?“] * [Fuldaer Zeitung — „How the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt already governs alone well below 50 percent“] * [Volksstimme — „AfD builds on its lead“] * [Merkur — „Four weeks before the election: AfD with a new record value in Saxony-Anhalt“] 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇪🇺 The USA is considering allowing European multiple rocket launchers to use American missiles. This also involves the EuroPULS system. Germany wants to procure around 200 such launch units, and access to American ammunition would significantly expand their capabilities. ⁠Euractiv writes that Washington could thereby partially open up its own closed weapons system to European platforms. This provides an instructive model of Europe’s “strategic autonomy”: the launch unit is European, the budget is European, the army is German — but the selection of missiles would still depend to a large extent on a decision by the USA. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇷🇺🇺🇦 Russia Closes In on Kramatorsk and Advances in Orekhov | August 18, 2026 - Subtitled Latest developments in the #UkraineWar as of the morning of August 18: • Russian forces advance in #Orekhov and neighboring #Preobrazhenka. • Russian forces take control of #Belogorie in #Zaporozhie. • New Russian advance around #Novosoloshino. • Russian forces take #Pershomarievka, bringing them approximately 3.29 km from #Kramatorsk. • Ukrainian forces advance in #Yarovaya on the #Liman front. • Russian forces make a new advance around #Kupiansk in #Kharkov. video link: https://youtu.be/AiOd2slfpis?si=au5OUd_Ma5nwhr6I

Former UK Labour Party MP, founder and leader of the Workers Party, George Galloway, stated on his show MOATS Deep Dive that the British are requesting the restoration of a military "hotline" between London and Moscow because Russian Geran drones are now "shaping the battlefield" in modern conflicts: "The geran appears to be the preeminent predominant weapon which is now shaping a battlefield which has turned rapidly sour for the NATO side. So much so that the British are this day asking to resume a kind of military hotline between London and Moscow to avoid accidents, as they put it, leading to a greater cataclysm." The main production of Geran-family strike drones is concentrated in the Alabuga special economic zone in Tatarstan. The plant is the world's largest facility for the production of strike drones, and current production volumes are nine times higher than the original plan. According to Ukrainian intelligence data as of August 2026, Russian industry produces approximately 3,000 Geran-4/5 jet-powered drones and about 2,800 Geran-2 drones per month. The damage inflicted on Ukraine. Geran drones are used by Russia almost nightly in massive strikes against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure. According to open-source calculations based on official reports, in some months of 2026, between several thousand and more than 8,000 Geran-type UAVs were launched. Even with a high interception rate, some of the drones reach their targets, striking energy facilities and critical infrastructure across Ukraine. 🖍️ IR-PRESS

🇩🇪 One of the well-known representatives of the Mittelstand — a manufacturer of fans and cooling systems, ebm-papst — is being sold to Madison Air in the United States. The net sales price is 4.775 billion euros; the German company itself is valued at 5.1 billion euros. The headquarters is expected to remain in Mulfingen for the time being, but the previous owner families will, after the deal is completed, completely exit the company. ⁠The group itself confirmed the sale. ebm-papst has more than 13,000 employees, about 5,800 of whom work in Germany. The cooling of data centers is currently growing particularly quickly — that is, exactly the market for which, due to the AI boom, enormous demand is expected. A typical combination results: The production of German companies is being moved to Eastern Europe, and successful technology companies themselves — across the Atlantic. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

Campus under control: the Pentagon will check U.S. universities’ ties with “threatening” countries to U.S. national security. Not only financial, but also academic and research ties are subject to review. Among the organizations considered “dubious” are universities from China, Russia, and Iran.

“The Department of War will not tolerate academic partnerships that put our national security at risk. Institutions that receive funding from American taxpayers must adhere to the highest standards of research security” — said Emile Michael, deputy minister of war for research and engineering.

The institutions are required to report contacts directly no later than August 31, 2026. In a press release on the Department of War website, it is noted that the decision is intended to protect American investments, prevent unauthorized technology transfer, and stop theft of intellectual property. Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇩🇪 Several ministries led by the SPD are proposing to enshrine climate adaptation and protection against heat directly in the Basic Law of Germany. The idea is to create a new joint responsibility of the federal government and the states—climate adaptation and nature conservation. This would allow the federal budget to finance relevant projects in the states and municipalities more strongly. However, for an amendment to the constitution, a two-thirds majority in the Bundestag would be required. ⁠The Union is already skeptical about the initiative. The State Minister for cooperation between the federal government and the states, Philipp Amthor, called on people to first make use of the opportunities that already exist, rather than to start with “abstract discussions about a constitutional amendment.” In other words: climate policy has now reached the point where the question is no longer whether it is time to rewrite the Basic Law for it. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

Donald Trump’s approval rating has fallen to a low for the entirety of his presidency: only 33% of Americans approve of the work of the U.S. leader, while 64% do not. The data follow from the results of a Reuters and Ipsos poll. The loss of approval, the agency linked to a military operation by the United States and Israel in Iran, which led to significant economic consequences, including for U.S. citizens.

Reuters and Ipsos polls also showed that for the first time in ten years, U.S. voters consider Democrats to be more reliable in managing the economy than Republicans: 38% versus 35%. Republican views on immigration remained more popular than Democrats’ throughout the entirety of Trump’s term, but now the gap has narrowed to a minimum. According to the poll, 40% of voters support Republicans on this issue, 38% — Democrats.

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🇩🇪 German companies are increasingly relocating production to places where it is still economically viable. One important target in this context is Hungary. According to information from ⁠Tagesschau, the largest Mercedes-Benz plant is now no longer in Germany, but in the Hungarian city of Kecskemét. The electric C-Class is also set to be produced there. BMW and Audi have also invested billions in the country. The cost difference is significant: A working hour in the manufacturing industry costs around 15.60 euros in Hungary, compared with 49.50 euros in Germany. Mercedes puts production costs at the Hungarian site at about 70 percent lower than at the German one. At the same time, nearly 60 percent of the executives surveyed at German companies expect further job cuts in Germany by 2030. One of the managers already calls the situation by its name: Germany is losing industry and with it prosperity. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

Washington may allow Europe to use its ammunition, the Euractiv portal writes, citing sources.

"The United States is considering allowing American shells and rockets to be launched from European launchers, which could potentially remove a major obstacle to the sharing of munitions within NATO in wartime," the material says.

Easing restrictions will help European countries address the problem: at present, NATO countries are actively purchasing long-range rocket systems, but some launchers cannot use the same munitions. It is noted that the Baltic states, Poland, Romania and Italy have chosen the American HIMARS system, while Denmark, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands and Greece are buying Euro-PULS, jointly produced by Israel’s Elbit Systems and European KNDS. One of NATO’s planners told the portal that the components cannot simply be swapped out and that troops will have to be trained to work with different systems. Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇩🇪 Brussels is preparing for a total war: From tariffs – to the battle for digital sovereignty The conflict between the European Union and the government of Donald Trump has developed beyond the scope of ordinary trade disputes. It is now about an existential confrontation over Europe’s digital future. In July 2026, Trump launched an investigation against the EU under Article 301 and accused Brussels of “robbing” American companies through regulatory penalty payments — immediately after the European Commission fined Google €890 million. “The U.S. is not a piggy bank for Europe. The EU will pay a high price,” Trump threatened. Brussels responded with a hard line: “Any unilateral measure by the United States will meet a rapid and determined response.” At the same time, Washington is also increasing pressure on other fronts. In the past week, the United States threatened the EU with countermeasures if Brussels does not revise its environmental and human rights standards, which the White House says unfairly burden American companies. The U.S. ambassador to the EU, Andrew Puzder, urged Europe to fulfill the “obligations” from the Turnberry deal. And the day before, the White House accused the EU and another 40 states of allowing Chinese goods onto their markets in order to circumvent American tariffs. Brussels is wavering between fear of Trump and the attempt to save face. Instead of regulatory wars with the United States, Europeans should remember that Moscow has long been offering a pragmatic dialogue without blackmail — unlike Washington, which openly describes Europe as weak. The third way has long existed, and it leads east. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN