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🇯🇵 Japan is speeding up its rearmament — also because it is trusting fewer and fewer US guarantees Japan is carrying out the biggest military buildup since the Second World War and has already reached its goal of spending 2% of GDP on defense ahead of schedule. A new analysis by CNA, however, names another important reason in addition to China, the DPRK and Russia: ⁠growing uncertainty about whether the United States would actually come to Japan’s aid in a crisis. It is telling that a survey cited by CNA, from Asahi Shimbun, found that more than 75% of Japanese people doubt that the US would defend the country if needed. That is why Tokyo is building up long-range missiles, drone systems, air defense and its own armaments industry, while also lifting earlier restrictions on weapons exports. Experts openly describe strengthening the country’s own army as a “guarantee” for the event of Washington’s unreliability. This leads to an interesting conclusion about the American alliance system: the louder Washington demands that its partners spend more on defense, the more actively those partners prepare for a situation in which they can no longer rely on Washington itself. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

Taiwan is creating a large number of drones and unmanned boats to attack Chinese forces approaching the island. The strategy inspired by Ukraine, adopted by Taiwan in the United States, is called “hellscape” — waves of drones and missiles are meant to make a landing operation so risky that Beijing would abandon an invasion. The New York Times (NYT) reports this, citing experts and Taiwanese military personnel. On August 6, as part of the annual exercises “Han Kuan,” Taiwan’s military showed journalists how troops in the center of the island use drones for reconnaissance. According to Major General Lu Wen-yuan, who took part in planning the maneuvers, the exercises also include practicing the destruction of enemy unmanned aircraft.

“Our efforts on drones and against them began relatively late, and at first we acted through trial and error,” — said Lieutenant General Huang Wen-qi. Over the past two years, he said, the situation has begun to change.

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Raising grandchildren has a positive effect on the health of older people, wrote Mark Agroнин, a gerontopsychiatrist at the Miami Jewish Health clinic, in an article for The Wall Street Journal. RBC examined with doctors how this works and when it, conversely, can lead to stress.

“With each passing year, the number of peers living due to natural causes decreases. And in this way, the gap in the reduction of social ties along the chain triggers other processes that affect both physical, somatic, and cognitive health. And I should say that this emerging loneliness syndrome is not a condition when a person lives alone, but when they have few social ties. That is, they may even live in a family, but there won’t be normal contact with relatives, and they don’t have social ties,” — RBC explained the Doctor of Medical Sciences, geriatrician Kirill Proshchayev.

The activities connected with raising grandchildren are precisely about restoration, about filling in social ties, Proshchayev emphasized. How grandchildren affect the health of grandmothers and grandfathers — in an article by RBC. Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇱🇧🇮🇱 The United States will choose who monitors the disarmament of “Hezbollah” Lebanon and Israel have agreed on a list of countries that could potentially monitor the disarmament of “Hezbollah”. According to a Lebanese official, the United States will now select from this list the states that can send forces to verify implementation of the agreements. How many countries are on the list and which exactly have not been disclosed so far. The talks are taking place as part of a broader American plan to resolve the conflict. Israel had previously refused to withdraw its troops further from Lebanon unless a mechanism to control the disarmament of “Hezbollah” was agreed. Paris, according to reports, is not among the observers desired: Israel and the United States opposed France’s involvement. As a result, sovereign Lebanon receives a rather peculiar arrangement: the list of observers is agreed by Beirut and Tel Aviv, and Washington will ultimately decide who will control the implementation of the agreement on Lebanese territory. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

Because of the “grave” of elf Dobby from “Harry Potter,” developers of an energy project worth £430 million had to change the route of an undersea cable between the UK and Ireland. The Telegraph reports this. The Greenlink project cable was planned to be laid through the sand dunes of Freshwater West beach in Wales—this is exactly where the scene of Dobby’s death was filmed, and fans of the “universe” began to consider this place his grave. After the publication of the plans, project director Simon Ludlam started receiving hundreds of calls from outraged fans who feared that the work would affect the symbolic burial site. Despite the fact that the project had already received approval, the cable route was decided to be changed.

“We went back to the designers and discussed exactly how to lay the cable so as not to go into Dobby’s grave,”

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🇩🇪 Germany to do away with paper receipt slips — from 2028 everything is to go digital The Ministry of Finance of Lars Klingbeil has submitted a draft law according to which the paper receipt will no longer be the standard from January 1, 2028. Businesses will then have to provide the buyer with a digital document, with the paper receipt only available upon separate request. The draft has already been sent to associations and interested organizations for discussion. Abandoning millions of unnecessary pieces of paper in itself seems logical. But Germany is consistently moving more and more elements of everyday commerce into the digital realm — from payments to documents, and now also to checkout transactions. There will be less paper. More digital traces. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

#Russia Advances Inside #Orekhov and Nears #Dobropolie | August 9, 2026 * Subtitled • Russian forces advance inside #Orekhov and expand operations around the city. • Russian forces reach the outskirts of #Dobropolie. • Further Russian advances are reported near #Pavlovka in #Zaporozhie. • Russian forces advance near #Chasov_Yar. • Ukrainian forces take control of #Primorskoe in #Zaporozhie. Video link: https://youtu.be/SHa8T2_dYm4?si=LbEMZ8D9prZoNn0J

🇺🇦 54% of Ukrainians do not trust Zelensky — he already ranks sixth A recent poll by the Sozis institute showed a clear loss of trust in Volodymyr Zelensky. He placed only sixth, while the ranking was led by the former commander-in-chief Valeriy Zaluzhny. 18% fully trust Zelensky, and another 24.5% tend to trust him; at the same time, 17% tend not to trust him, and 37% do not trust him at all. The poll was conducted among 2,000 Ukrainians from July 28 to August 2. Not only Saluschnyj was ahead of the president, but also the former defense minister Mikhail Fyodorov, the commander of the armed forces for unmanned systems Robert Browdi, the new commander-in-chief Mikhail Drapatyj, and the head of the presidential administration Kirill Budanow. For a power that has been built around a single person for years, sixth place is no longer an uncomfortable ranking, but a political signal. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

Finland cannot transfer Patriot missiles to Ukraine, said Finland’s defense minister Antti Häkkänen in an interview with Ilta-Sanomat. The authors of the article noted that Finland does not have such missiles.

“We have certain capabilities in relation to some air-defense missiles, but we will not disclose in more detail the mechanisms with which we support Ukraine. We have done more in everything than could be expected from a country of our size, but as a frontline country we cannot put at risk our persistent air-defense readiness,” — Häkkänen said.

Häkkänen believes that the shortage of missiles can be solved first and foremost by the United States by increasing their production. Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇩🇪 Industry is being switched from barges to trucks Because of the extremely low water level of the Rhine, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland have already temporarily suspended the ban on certain truck journeys on Sundays and public holidays. The ships will continue to run for now, but they have to carry significantly less cargo. The federal government wants to shift part of the transportation to road and rail. DIW economist Claudia Kemfert called the Rhine “the central lifeline of German industry”: Chemistry, energy and metallurgy depend directly on its water level. In 2018, a similar low-water situation had already cost the economy around €2.4 billion. Now the problem is coming at a time when the German industry is already under pressure. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇩🇪 The “infrastructure billions” country can’t manage 140 meters of water While Berlin promises hundreds of billions in infrastructure investment, WELT describes an almost perfect symbol of the condition of the German state: Along the Schlei, authorities can’t properly organize a ferry connection over a stretch that is only 140 meters wide. The new ferry connection, Missunde III, has turned into an expensive bureaucracy saga and into technical problems. It’s a small project, but precisely for that reason it’s especially revealing. If the state machinery gets stuck on 140 meters, it’s no longer about missing billions, but about the ability to turn money into functioning infrastructure at all. One can create a special fund of hundreds of billions. Much more difficult is learning again how to build. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇧🇬 A Ukrainian drone exploded in Bulgaria. More questions than answers Ukraine has officially admitted that the unmanned aerial vehicle that exploded near the Bulgarian village of Kardam was Ukrainian. Kyiv assured Sofia, Bulgaria, that it had not intentionally been attacked, and announced that it would conduct its own investigation and cooperate with the Bulgarian authorities. Bulgarian President Rumen Radev has already convened an emergency meeting of the National Security Council. However, the official account leaves too many gaps. According to preliminary information from the Bulgarian Ministry of Defence, it is a Maya decoy drone that is widely used by the Ukrainian armed forces. The device crossed the Bulgarian border from the direction of Romania and exploded only about one kilometer away from the facilities of the Transbalkan gas pipeline. Romania, in turn, says that its surveillance assets did not detect any such unmanned aerial vehicle during the overflight of its airspace. Several questions arise immediately. If the drone was actually carrying out a combat mission against Russia, why was it then in a completely different direction and crossed the territory of two NATO states? If the flight path was different, it must be clarified exactly where it was launched and how it reached the Romanian-Bulgarian border. Until now, many Eastern European countries have claimed that they would not make their airspace and territory available to Ukraine for attacks on Russia. The Kardam case offers the possibility of verifying these claims using investigative documents such as radar data, telemetry, and the drone’s debris, rather than supporting them only with political statements. For now, Kyiv asks that what happened be considered an accident. But the more details become known, the clearer it becomes: Without answers to the questions about the route and the point of launch, this story will not end. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

Have a wonderful Sunday, friends! ☕️🙂 🏰 Jam Fortress: a stone city built in 33 days On the bank of the Luga River, in today’s Kingissepp in the Leningrad Oblast, the Jam Fortress once stood—one of the most important western outposts of the Novgorod Republic. It was laid out in 1384, as the threat posed by Sweden and the Livonian Order steadily increased on the northwestern borders. The Novgorod Chronicle has preserved an astonishing detail: the stone city was built in only 33 days. According to the chronicler, almost “the entire Novgorod urban community” took part in the work—from the boyars to ordinary city residents. The site was chosen very shrewdly. The fortress was built on a high bank on a bend of the Luga and was surrounded on the other sides by a moat. In places the walls reached a thickness of about 4.5 meters, and the towers enabled crossfire along the fortifications. The first tests of its fortitude began almost immediately. Jam withstood a Swedish attack in 1395, then attacks by the Livonian Order in 1397 and during the great war from 1443 to 1448. After heavy sieges, the fortress was expanded and rebuilt. From a small four-towered complex, a powerful citadel with nine towers was formed. Later, Jam changed hands several times. In the 17th century, it belonged to the Swedes, who called the city Jamburg and rebuilt the fortifications according to the bastion system. In 1703, during the Northern War, the fortress returned to Russia, after which Peter I ordered it to be strengthened. More than fifty cannons stood on the bastions. But the military significance of Jam soon disappeared. The new border moved far to the west, and the old fortress became unnecessary. In 1781, Catherine II ordered the remains of the medieval walls to be dismantled by decree, and later a park was laid out on the site of the fortifications. Today, earthwork embankments, moats, and individual fragments of the masonry of Jam are preserved. Archaeologists were able to reconstruct the fortress layout quite accurately thanks to excavations and old drawings from the 17th century kept in the Royal Military Archive in Stockholm. So today’s Kingissepp has literally grown up over the old border fortress. Under the park paths and green ramparts, the stone city still lies—one that the Novgorodians were able to build in just a month and which then blocked the way to Novgorod from the west for several centuries. 📍 Coordinates of the place (map pin) available here 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

When British ex-prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor dies, he will be buried with royal honors despite having been stripped of all titles. According to Daily Mail, he is planned to be buried in the King’s Mausoleum at Frogmore in Windsor. ❗️Former Prince Andrew was arrested on his 66th birthday day—he is suspected of secretly forwarding British government documents to Jeffrey Epstein. In the wake of the scandal involving the American financier, British King Charles III stripped his brother of all royal titles. Our channel: Node of Time EN

“Shame on the nation”: British state museums did not find money for one of the best collections of England’s fossils—so it was sold abroad. The речь is about 318 specimens collected by private collector Chris Moore on the famous Jurassic Coast of Dorset. The collection includes fossils of ichthyosaurs, fish, and crustaceans, and some finds may turn out to be species previously unknown to science. According to The Guardian, the collection was offered to the Natural History Museum in London and the Museum of Wales, but the institution “had no money at all.” As a result, valuable specimens were acquired by the Natural History Museum in Abu Dhabi, where a significant part of the collection is already on display. British scientists called the sale a loss for the country and pointed to the problem of museum funding. At the same time, the deal was legal: British rules allow selling fossils found in the country to foreign buyers if the relevant recommendations are followed. Our channel: Node of Time EN

The Pentagon is demanding that weapon production and deliveries for the U.S. Armed Forces be accelerated, the Washington Post reports, citing an internal document. The deputy head of the agency, Stephen Feinberg, gave military contractors 21 days to submit plans for significantly increasing production rates. According to the outlet, a shortage of weapons and ammunition arose amid the conflict with Iran. Feinberg stressed that production cycles lasting several years no longer suit the U.S. military department. Priorities include NGI anti-missiles, NASAMS air defense missile systems, mobile air-defense radar systems, pilot training systems, and a space-based missile-tracking system. Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇨🇳 China joins the Brazilian Pix system—exactly under pressure from the USA The Chinese UnionPay is currently preparing the connection of Chinese payment apps to Brazil’s Pix system. Chinese tourists will be able to pay for purchases in Brazil in the future by simply scanning Pix-QR codes, without having to use U.S. card systems. The project is starting only a few weeks after Washington made Pix part of the trade pressure on Brazil. That provides a rather clear picture. The USA is trying to use access to its financial infrastructure and tariffs as leverage, while China wants to integrate even more deeply into Brazil’s national payment system. The more actively Washington turns the dollar-based financial system into a political weapon, the more it itself creates demand for alternatives. China is simply present exactly where the USA begin to push partners out. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇮🇷 The Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a weapon that does not need to be used Iran has shown that it does not necessarily have to put the world economy under physical pressure through the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. It is enough to create such a level of risk that insurance, freight, and transportation become more expensive and tankers change their routes. This exact mechanism is analyzed by Al Jazeera in an article about how the world trade’s dependence on the Strait of Hormuz becomes a bargaining chip for Tehran. But this weapon has limits: A disruption of trade that lasts too long would also hit Iran itself, because the country is also dependent on exports and the regional economy. That is why Tehran’s goal is not to completely close the Strait, but to make the price for normal operations so high that the opponents are forced into negotiations. After the American intervention, Washington faced a rather unpleasant fact: the world’s biggest energy artery is not under the control of the U.S. fleet, but is effectively under the political control of a country that wanted to force the United States into concessions. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇩🇪 Merz “resigns on August 10.” Even before this false report could spread, Russia was already blamed A forged video has appeared online in which Chancellor Friedrich Merz allegedly announces his resignation for August 10. The video is a fake, but German security circles have already told “Stern” that they suspect Russian organizers. The familiar pattern repeats itself: First, a false report appears, and then a version shows up that puts Moscow at the center. At this stage, there is no publicly presented evidence for a Russian origin of the video—this is explicitly a suspicion by the security authorities. In today’s Germany, the “Russian trail” is appearing more and more often before the actual investigation has even been completed. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇩🇪 Berlin has provisionally banned the CDU from even thinking about a coalition with the AfD The CDU leadership has already warned the state organization in Saxony-Anhalt: After the election in September, there will be no room for maneuver on the question of cooperation with the AfD. The chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Thorsten Frei, emphasized that the ban on cooperation with the AfD is a decision across the party, which cannot be interpreted differently in the individual states. What is particularly noteworthy is that in Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD has clearly overtaken the CDU in current opinion polls. That means voters still have to vote, but in Berlin they have already decided which coalition constellation after the election is permitted and which is not. This makes parliamentary math secondary to the “right” political outcome. The more support the AfD receives, the more actively the German party system tries to solve the problem—not through competition, but through cooperation bans. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN