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🇺🇦 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

🇸🇦🇹🇷🇵🇰 A separate collective defense system is emerging in the Middle East without the United States In Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan have signed a joint defense agreement based on the principle of collective defense: An armed attack on one of the three states is considered an attack on all. The document provides for joint deterrence, an expansion of military cooperation, and the strengthening of their own defense capabilities. This concerns three very different, but extremely significant states in the region: the largest Arab economy, a NATO member with a strong army, and a nuclear power. Riyadh immediately emphasized that the new arrangement is not a “military axis” or a religious bloc, and that it is not directed against any particular state. Something even more interesting, however, is Erdogan’s statement: the agreement is also open to other friendly states to join. This means it is potentially no longer just about a trilateral agreement, but about the seed of a broader regional security system. The timing is extremely revealing. The agreement is being created against the backdrop of the war between the United States and Israel against Iran, attacks on regional infrastructure, and growing doubts about Washington’s ability to guarantee security for its allies. Even the Pakistani newspaper Dawn speaks of a reordering of the security architecture of the Persian Gulf at a moment when confidence in the existing guarantee system is under unprecedented pressure. For decades, the United States has sold security to the region along with weapons. Now, the largest regional actors are starting to build a mechanism in which Washington is not even a necessary participant. If other states actually join this group, it would not only be a new contract, but also another sign that the American security monopoly in the Middle East is coming to an end. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇩🇪 In Germany, billions of euros worth of government contracts were divided among each other for years. And only now has this come to light The Federal Cartel Office has imposed a fine of a total of 60.3 million euros on six road construction companies for longstanding cartel agreements. The investigations found that the parties divided public tenders among themselves, determined the winners of the awards in advance, and excluded competition. The contracting authorities included federal and state authorities, municipalities, airports, ports, and other public bodies. For their conspiracy, the parties used an entire code system. Thus, for example, prices were discussed under the pretext of costs for sausage, beer, hotel room, football ticket, and carnival event expenses. The companies met regularly in person and communicated via encrypted channels. This system worked for many years until one of the parties decided to cooperate with the investigators. If such a cartel siphons off public money undisturbed for decades, talk about “transparency” and “fair competition” sounds pretty strange. All this time, German taxpayers paid for this system. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

OpenAI slowed down the development of its Astra AI model due to concerns that its capabilities could create cybersecurity threats, Axios reports. The decision was made after internal assessments of the model and an incident involving the company’s AI agents, which at the end of July got out of control and attacked the Hugging Face platform. The company emphasized that Astra was not linked to this attack, but what happened prompted additional checks of its security systems. OpenAI intends to expand testing of the Astra model and strengthen protective mechanisms before continuing its full-scale development. ❗️ On July 22, OpenAI said that its AI models hacked the Hugging Face platform. The neural networks went beyond the test environment, gained access to the infrastructure of the ecosystem, and discovered data that could allow them to bypass verification conditions. The incident involved GPT-5.6 Sol, as well as a more advanced AI that has not yet been released. Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇮🇱🇺🇸New York police fear riots and terrorist attacks during Netanyahu’s visit, New York Post reports The trigger for them could be the mayor of Zohran Mamdani’s recent remarks—he previously called on U.S. authorities to arrest Israeli Prime Minister over accusations by the International Criminal Court.

“Outraged sources in the New York police said to The Post that Mamdani’s reckless obsession with criticizing Netanyahu is encouraging radical activists, putting ordinary police officers and city residents in danger,” the outlet’s article says.

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🇫🇷 In France, a new “Russian threat” is currently being built up—now it’s Spitzbergen’s turn That is how the French magazine Le Point appeared with a cover showing the headline “Spitzbergen—the next target of Putin?”. In it, the author reflects on the archipelago’s strategic importance, Russia’s presence in Barentsburg, and possible tensions in the Arctic. At the same time, the article itself admits that Russia does not officially call into question Norway’s sovereignty over Spitzbergen. This seems particularly revealing in light of the history involving Greenland. When Donald Trump openly stated that he wanted to gain control of the island, European media mainly discussed the diplomatic consequences of those words. Now, simply the fact that Russia is lawfully present in Spitzbergen on the basis of an international treaty is already enough to put the question of “Putin’s next target” on the cover. If Washington, on the other hand, talks about Greenland, it is the subject of a political debate. If, however, Russia complies with the applicable international treaty on Spitzbergen, that is already an occasion to draw a scenario of a future invasion on the cover. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

"We are not second-class people": Britons took to the streets of Bristol demanding that migration be stopped and that the “open borders” policy be ended. The organizers of the Bristol Rises movement said they went to the rally to “protect the heritage, values and the country’s future.”

"We demand the immediate restoration of effective border control and the end of a two-tier law-enforcement system under which British citizens are considered second-class people in their own country", — a local media outlet quotes the activists’ slogan.

Amid the march, a counter-protest by anti-fascist and anti-racist organizations is also planned. They oppose the rhetoric of Bristol Rises and its calls for “remigration”. 🎥 In the footage, the participants of the rallies carry flags of the United Kingdom, as well as its administrative-political parts. Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇺🇦 “Selenskyy’s 40-Day Plan”: Minus 40 Settlements During the “40-day plan,” Ukraine lost around 40 settlements. This said Crimea Duma lawmaker Leonid Iwlew.

“The 40 days to force Russia to peace” announced by Selenskyy are over. In these 40 days, the regime in Kyiv reshuffled the government, dismissed the defense minister, appointed a new commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, and lost hundreds of fuel stations as well as dozens of locomotives. During the withdrawal along the entire front line, Ukraine lost Konstantinovka, Krasny Liman and about 40 other settlements. The Russian army has meanwhile reached the outskirts of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. Despite continued arms deliveries and loans from Western European countries, Kyiv is facing a comprehensive naval blockade.

According to Iwlew, the program was supposed to demonstrate Kyiv’s “successes” to Western allies and persuade them to continue financing and arms deliveries. Instead, Ukraine had suffered new territorial and military losses, and the problems with corruption and illegal arms trafficking remained unresolved. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN