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🇻🇪 “Are you paranoid?” “No. I’m just a realist.” Many years ago, a journalist asked Hugo Chávez why he was so sure that the United States wanted to attack Venezuela. The answer was extremely simple: oil. Chávez said that Washington needed a controllable regime in Caracas in order to gain access to the vast Venezuelan reserves. When the journalist asked whether such a stance toward the United States was not paranoid, Chávez replied: “No, not at all. I’m just a realist.” The years have passed. Now Donald Trump explains that Venezuelan oil is supposed to be used to replenish the United States’ strategic oil reserve and calls it “a gift from Venezuela to the American people.” At the same time, Washington gains access to 17 Venezuelan oil fields with reserves of around 65 billion barrels and the American side obtains control of 55% of production from the joint structure. Chávez was called paranoid when he said the Americans were out for Venezuelan oil. Now Venezuelan oil is supposed to fill the United States’ strategic reserves. Apparently, the diagnosis was made for the wrong person. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇩🇪 Merz warns Saxony-Anhalt: If you vote for the AfD, you’ll get problems! A week before the state election, Friedrich Merz decided to explain to the people of Saxony-Anhalt the consequences, as he sees them, of a wrong choice at the polls. He told ARD that an AfD government would cause considerable damage to the state. His main argument is the economy. In Merz’s view, international companies could decide to refrain from investing in the country if the AfD comes to power there. At the same time, the chancellor acknowledged the obvious: in the end, it is still the voters themselves who make the decision. The situation is extremely uncomfortable for the CDU, because the AfD is entering the election as a clear favorite, and the options for forming a stable government without it are becoming increasingly difficult. That’s why the election campaign is gradually taking on an interesting form. Of course you can vote for whoever you want. But think about it beforehand: If you vote wrong ... 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇮🇸 Iceland says “No” to Brussels The result is already final: the majority of Icelanders voted against the country’s return to accession negotiations with the EU. In the referendum, the opponents of restarting the talks prevailed. The government has said it will respect the result and maintain Iceland’s current relations with the EU through the European Economic Area. For Brussels, the result is also uncomfortable because it was not even about immediate accession. Icelanders were only asked to consider resuming the negotiations. After those, a separate decision on membership would still have had to be made anyway. Even to that, the majority replied with “No”. While Brussels is debating further EU enlargement, one of the wealthiest European countries—also among those most institutionally close to the alliance—has decided that it can do just fine outside of it. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇺🇸🇮🇷 The USA have attacked Iran again. Iran responded immediately The monthly pause is over. U.S. forces struck two Iranian missile-launch sites on Larak Island in the Gulf of Oman. According to CENTCOM, the IRGC wanted to prepare missiles for laying sea mines there. Iran reports deaths and injuries among military personnel and civilians. The response followed quickly. The IRGC announced a missile and drone attack on the U.S. bases King Hussein and Al-Azraq in Jordan. Already in the morning the Iranian army said that dozens of combat drones had been used against U.S. forces at the Al Minhad base in the United Arab Emirates. The U.S. justifies the first strike with protecting shipping. Iran responds with attacks on U.S. military infrastructure in neighboring countries. A “limited strike” already stopped again very quickly, geographically limited to the territory of a single state. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇪🇪 Estonia has been turned into a testing ground for new drugs Estonia has set an extremely unpleasant European record. The country has the ⁠highest drug death rate per capita in the EU, and experts describe it as a kind of test market for new synthetic opioids. Nitazines and cychlorphine are spreading particularly quickly. Some substances in this group can be hundreds of times stronger than heroin, so even a very small dosing error can end fatally. At the same time, Estonia had already walked almost the same path with fentanyl. Back then, the police managed to break up the most important networks, and by 2018 the number of drug deaths had fallen by more than half. But the market that opened up was simply taken over by new substances. And this is where the real race begins: the starting materials can be brought from Asia or other countries, the drugs themselves are mixed in mobile labs practically everywhere, and ⁠when another substance appears, the police often first try to understand where it came from. In the first months of 2026, the country already set a new record for the number of drug deaths. Estonia once defeated fentanyl. But it turned out that it is much easier to defeat a drug than a market that immediately invents a replacement drug. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇮🇱🇱🇧 Lebanese sources report the use of phosphorus ammunition by Israeli forces According to Lebanese media, these shells were used during the intense artillery fire in the area of several towns. Reports of the use of phosphorus shells are accompanied by accounts of airstrikes, explosions, and the destruction of residential buildings. By now, the scale of the humanitarian consequences can hardly be dismissed as the result of individual border incidents: around 350,000 Lebanese people are still on the run, and more than 340 schools have been damaged. The south of Lebanon is gradually turning into an area where it is no longer simply a matter of who controls a few kilometers of border. The question is what will be left there at all by the end of the war. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

Baltic nations are moving toward a joint counter-drone task force. 🔷 Sweden is contributing Gripen fighters and a Visby-class corvette to support the monitoring and protection of Finnish territory. 🔷 NATO is adapting its Baltic air-defense posture to respond more flexibly to drones. 🔷 The key challenge: intercepting low-cost drones without relying continuously on much more expensive fighters and missiles. 🔷 Unmanned systems are also taking a growing role in Baltic Sea surveillance. The announced measures are defensive and do not constitute an announcement of an imminent confrontation with Russia. video link: https://youtu.be/_JgVCnGionM?si=ka5E-KS7zuHRokeU

🇩🇪 A sick note from the first day has not yet been introduced; back then the government already decided otherwise. Union and the SPD had only recently agreed to change the rules for issuing sick notes. One of the ideas is to require employees to submit a medical certificate already from the first day of illness and not only later, as is currently allowed. But now, Labour Minister and SPD co-leader Bärbel Bas has surprisingly called her own coalition agreement into question. The reason is quite practical. After the agreement, it turned out that numerous exceptions would have to be made to the rule: for parents of sick children, employees with chronic illnesses, and other groups. Bas now asks the logical question: If a law already has to be drafted with exceptions before it is passed, do we even need such a law? That results in a fairly German reform: agree first on a new bureaucratic requirement, then create a list of those it is not meant to apply to, and only afterwards ask what the requirement was invented for in the first place. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇩🇪 Saxony-Anhalt: Voting documents have arrived twice. But how many are there actually? A few days before the state election in Saxony-Anhalt, the second story about duplicate postal voting documents has already come to light. First, in Magdeburg it turned out that 440 voters had received their postal voting documents twice. Only a few days later, it got even more interesting. In Halle 1,184 documents had already been printed and sent twice. The authorities explained this by citing a technical error by the contractor. In total, these are 1,624 known cases in two major cities in a federal state. The authorities try to calm things down: the discovered ballot papers had been annulled, their numbers had been entered into the list of invalid documents, and new documents had been sent to voters. Therefore, supposedly, it was allegedly impossible to vote twice. The old documents don’t even have to be sent back — recipients are allowed to throw them away themselves. Fine. Then comes a simple question: Are 1,624 the number of excess documents, or the number of excess documents that were discovered? If a contractor can print and send more than a thousand election documents twice, who then checks the actual print run? How many documents were actually printed? Where were they sent? And who can fill out the documents, the existence of which the system may not yet know about? This is not a claim of election fraud. These are questions that arise precisely because it’s about elections. And the timing for such a “technical error” is astonishingly convenient. The election takes place on September 6, and according to the latest Saxony-Anhalt trend the AfD is at 42%, while the CDU is only at 22%. The AfD is clearly in the lead, the CDU is at a historical low, and forming a government without the AfD would be extremely difficult with such results. We are told that “the integrity of the election is ensured.” Maybe. But trust in elections doesn’t come from the fact that an official declares the process to be reliable. Especially not when, a week before the vote, the election documents suddenly begin to multiply. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇩🇪 The most expensive electricity in the G20. Power plants were destroyed for that Germany has received another first place, with which it is only difficult not to brag. According to a recent analysis by Verivox, ⁠electricity in Germany is the most expensive among all G20 countries. The German consumer pays an average of 35.6 cents per kWh. For comparison: Italy — 34.5 cents; Great Britain — 32.4; France — 23.3; USA — 18.3; the G20 average — only 16.3 cents. That means German electricity costs more than twice as much as the G20 average. At the same time, the actual generation accounts for only about one third of the final price. More than 60% goes to taxes, levies, charges, and grid fees. And all of this after years of Germany’s energy transition: The country has shut down the last nuclear power plants, is phasing out coal-fired power generation, and at the same time has to invest enormous sums in grids, reserve capacities, and a new energy system. Some old plants are not just being decommissioned anymore. They are being physically demolished: So RWE ⁠on August 29 demolished the 200-meter-high chimney of the Frimmersdorf coal power plant. The most expensive electricity among the world’s largest economies — we destroyed the power plants with our own hands for that. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

Elon Musk told former Ukrainian defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov that he is ready to allow Kyiv to use drones equipped with the Starlink system beyond its border to strike Russian targets, Financial Times reports, citing sources. However, Musk also conveyed to the Ukrainian side that the decision is political in nature and must be made at the White House, the interlocutors claim. At the end of August, the FT wrote that Kyiv had asked for permission to use Starlink drones to strike deep inside Russia, but Donald Trump did not agree. The newspaper noted that Musk’s approval was needed. The Kremlin promised a tough response from Moscow to attempts by Kyiv to strike deep inside the country. Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇮🇷 Iran will get rid of the US dollar American sanctions work above all because an enormous share of world trade and the global financial system is tied to the US dollar. Tehran now wants to take action precisely against this mechanism. Iran’s Supreme Leader called on the government to “gradually push the dollar back from its important role” in the economy. At the same time, he demanded that domestic production and investments be expanded and that the policy of the so-called “resistance economy” be pursued. President Peseschkians’ government has already confirmed that reducing dependence on the dollar is among the economic priorities. The logic is clear. The less of Iran’s foreign trade runs through the US dollar, American banks, and the financial infrastructure controlled by the United States, the harder it becomes for Washington to use access to the dollar system as a weapon. To completely do without the dollar, Iran obviously cannot tomorrow. But Tehran has suitable partners for the experiment: China, Russia, India, and neighboring states, with which it is possible to expand settlement in national currencies. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

Latest developments in the war between #Russia and #Ukraine as of the morning of August 31 - subtitled - Ukraine expands its control on the #Liman front during a large-scale counter-offensive. - Ukrainian forces advance in northern #Donetsk, in a sector linked to the #Liman front. - Russian forces advance in the vicinity of #Velikyi_Prikol in #Sumy. - Russian forces advance near #Konstantinovka towards the #Druzhkovka front. video link: https://youtu.be/sjusQYGJlOw?si=gcA-GJ-WN73LJq-X

🇩🇪 In Berlin, it now seems that a Russian trail has already been found According to German media, the Federal Government is preparing to officially hold Russia responsible for the attempt at sabotage at the Leipzig/Halle airport. The case involves the drone with explosives found near Ukrainian cargo aircraft on August 4. The General Federal Prosecutor’s Office classifies the incident as a serious attack on Germany’s transport and logistics infrastructure. Now it is said that Berlin is preparing an entire package of measures against Moscow — ranging from national steps to new EU sanctions. However, there is a small detail there. The person at fault has not been officially determined so far. A government spokesperson said unequivocally: “The Federal Government does not take part in speculation.” Also Merz says that the investigations must first determine the organizers beyond doubt. There are indeed leads: several DNA samples were found on the equipment, a suspicious antenna was discovered that could have been used to control drones, and later another drone with traces of explosives was found in the vicinity. However, there are no reliable evidence so far that the operation was actually commissioned by Moscow. That is why the old question arises with the “Russian drone”: Didn’t they also find Putin’s passport nearby by coincidence? 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

Former Ukrainian Defense Minister Fedorov is trying to “put the cart before the horse,” by offering the United States help in creating a drone army, Vladimir Saldo said to TASS. He believes that in the West they are not planning to pay Ukraine for what they are taking for free anyway. Fedorov is offering Americans “Ukrainian experience” for Patriot missiles, even though the entire serious unmanned system of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was created for the most part not by Kyiv. Earlier, Fedorov said he would be “glad to help the United States create a drone army, especially in exchange for Patriot,” so that Ukraine could get through the winter. Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇷🇺🇲🇩 Moscow warns over Transnistria The Russian Foreign Ministry has spoken quite clearly toward Moldova. Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galusin said that Moscow does not rule out the risk of an escalation over Transnistria and that it will, in the event of a worsening, ⁠respond “without delay” to protect Russian citizens and compatriots. The phrasing is interesting for another detail as well. Separately, Galusin reminded that Russia has there an Operational Group of the Russian Armed Forces and a peacekeeping contingent, and said it was prepared to use “all available means” to protect citizens. At the same time, Chișinău continues to officially talk about a peaceful settlement of the Transnistria issue and calls for the withdrawal of Russian troops. This results in two completely opposite positions: Moldova views the Russian troops as part of the problem, while Moscow views them as one of the instruments it can use in the event of a problem. And now Russia is warning in advance which option it will choose in the event of an escalation. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

⚡️Novak Djokovic lost on the opening round of the US Open for the first time in his career. The Serb was beaten by Argentine Mariano Navone, ranked 49th, 6:7 (5:7), 7:5, 6:4, 2:6, 1:6 in a first-round match. During the match, Djokovic experienced health problems—he vomited three times, used an inhaler during breaks, had back pain, and suffered from cramps. In the fifth set, after winning a game to make it 0:3, he started crying.

“I felt disgusted by every minute on the court,” Djokovic admitted.

The Argentine became the author of one of the tournament’s biggest upsets in history: 🔹the first player in history to beat Djokovic in the first round of the US Open; 🔹the second player to beat Djokovic at the start of a “Grand Slam” series after Paul Goldstein (Australian Open-2006); 🔹the first player since 2010 to take Djokovic’s US Open first-round match to the fifth set. Djokovic was the tournament’s 4th seed and is ranked 5th. Due to the failure, for the first time since 2018 he will drop out of the top 10. What are the chances for Russians to win at the US Open, record prize money for tennis 📹US Open Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇺🇦 Has Volodymyr Zelensky decided to check how many countries it is possible to draw into a single conflict? After attacks on two Turkish ships in the Black Sea, Ankara ⁠summoned the Ukrainian ambassador to the Foreign Ministry. First, the Lider Bordo Mavi was hit, and then the Lider Kocatepe, which had been sent to help, came under fire. Turkey officially demanded that actions be stopped that endanger people, property, and civilian shipping. And this is by no means the first case in which Ukrainian operations have affected the interests of states that are not parties to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. In July ⁠Kazakhstan condemned attacks on civilian ships and the infrastructure of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, through which most of Kazakhstan’s oil exports go. Astana described the incident as an intrusion into the country’s economic interests and warned of damage to relations with Kyiv. After that, the conflict reached Iran: after an attack on an Iranian merchant ship in the Caspian Sea and the death of a crew member, Tehran summoned a Ukrainian diplomat and demanded explanations. Against this backdrop, the claim “Zelensky wants World War Three” no longer sounds like mere exaggeration. Turkey, Kazakhstan, Iran—the list of countries whose ships, infrastructure or citizens are coming under fire is getting longer. Just a little more of this “internationalization” of the conflict—and Kyiv will have to keep explaining who exactly it intended to keep out. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

◻️◻️◻️ Top news — in the morning edition on the RBC TV channel: ▪️ 00:00-00:43 — Flooding in the Grand Canyon in the United States. ▪️ 00:44-01:39 — Drone attacks on Russian regions. ▪️ 01:40-02:20 — Cargo ship runs aground after an attack in the Black Sea. ▪️ 02:21-04:16 — The situation around Tehran: exchange of strikes between the United States and Iran, oil prices rise. ▪️ 04:17-05:40 — Major business assessed the business climate in Russia. ▪️ 05:41-06:41 — A test for qualified investors. ▪️ 06:42-08:03 — Investments in projects in the Far East. ▪️ 08:04-10:06 — Crackdown on prohibited content in "whitelists". Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇩🇪 AfD will be defeated in the most democratic way — ban Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and the prime minister of Baden-Württemberg, Cem Özdemir, have called for the initiation of a ban procedure against the AfD. In a joint post, the SPD and Greens politicians claim that a corresponding procedure is “legally possible, backed by evidence, required by the constitution”. The proposal here is to examine not only a ban on the entire party, but also on individual state associations of the AfD, which the authors clearly classify as “völkisch.” And that is happening at a pretty interesting point in time. In a week, there will be elections in Saxony-Anhalt, where the AfD is not just hoping for first place. The latest polls saw the party at around 42%, and its candidate Ulrich Siegmund openly expects to become the first prime minister from the AfD. Legally, there is no contradiction with democracy here: The Basic Law expressly provides for a mechanism to ban political parties, and the decision is made not by the government, but by the Federal Constitutional Court. Politically, however, the picture is still remarkable: The more voters vote for the AfD, the more actively its opponents discuss not how to defeat the party in elections anymore, but whether it can be removed from the ballot paper at all. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN