Node of Time EN

During a live broadcast of a solar eclipse, NASA showed a map on which Crimea was marked as Russian territory. The recording was published on the agency’s X page. On the map that appeared during the live broadcast, the peninsula was separated from Ukraine by a line indicating the state border. At the same time, the self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics, as well as the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, which became part of Russia in 2022, were marked on the same map as Ukrainian territories.

Crimea became part of Russia following a referendum in 2014; the LPR, DPR, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions—after referendums in 2022. Ukraine and Western countries did not recognize their results. The European Parliament adopted a resolution under which the EU will not recognize the new regions of Russia as Russian. Moscow has repeatedly said that the question of the peninsula’s ownership is settled. Vladimir Putin cited, among the conditions for ending the fighting, the withdrawal of Ukrainian servicemembers from the LPR, DPR, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions, the recognition of these regions and Crimea as part of Russia.

Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇩🇪 Court in Hesse writes decision using ChatGPT The Hessian Administrative Court dealt with the question of whether Ukrainians in Germany have a claim to temporary protection if, after the start of the war, they initially lived in Georgia for several years. To clarify Georgia’s legal situation, the judges decided to use ChatGPT — and this was immediately visible in the text of the judgment of June 24, 2026: In five references, the characteristic suffix “source=chatgpt.com” was left intact. The problem was not just cosmetic. One of the references cited by the AI led to a version of the Georgian law that no longer applied for the period in question, and the Georgian government regulation of February 24, 2026, mentioned by the court could not be verified at all through the specified source. The court acknowledged these errors, but does not want to review the decision: According to its own account, ChatGPT was only one of several search tools; the information was cross-checked with other materials, and the final legal assessment remains correct. That resulted in an almost ideal demonstration of judicial competence: ChatGPT can be wrong, a judge can copy the mistake into an official document — and the decision remains in force anyway. Apparently, what matters most is then to explain that the overall result is correct. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

On August 13, by-elections for a Member of the House of Commons will be held in the United Kingdom for the Clacton constituency in the county of Essex in the south-east of the country. They were scheduled because the leader of the right-populist Reform UK party, Nigel Farage, who represented the constituency in the lower house of the British Parliament, announced on July 7 that he would resign his powers early. However, he immediately made it clear that he will run for this seat again. His main rival in the by-election was Earl Face — a Trash Bin. More — in an RBC report. Photo: Dan Kitwood / Getty Images Our channel: Node of Time EN

Have a nice Thursday, friends! ☕️🙂 🌲 The Dancing Forest — a place where trees forget they’re supposed to be growing right now On the Curonian Spit, a narrow strip of land between the Baltic Sea and the Curonian Lagoon, there is a small pine forest that looks as though it violates all the usual laws of nature. Here the trunks bend into rings, wind into spirals, form loops and arches. That is exactly why this place was named the Dancing Forest. The forest is relatively young—it was planted in the early 1960s to stabilize the shifting sand dunes. But after a few years, part of the young pines began to grow in a completely unusual way. Some trees curve into a ring, others resemble a corkscrew, and still others seem as if their motion has been frozen. Scientists have proposed several explanations. According to one version, in the first years of growth the caterpillars of the budworm— a small moth that damages the treetops—damaged the young pines. Another explanation is that the peculiarities of the sandy soil, constant winds, and the movement of the dunes play a role. No single explanation has been agreed upon so far, which is why the Dancing Forest remains one of the Baltic Sea’s best-known natural mysteries. However, locals may have entirely different explanations. According to a legend, a girl of extraordinary beauty once played here. When the trees heard her music, they began to dance and were frozen forever in that motion. What’s remarkable is that the unusual pines grow only in a small section. After just a few dozen meters, the forest becomes completely ordinary again, as if the boundary between two different worlds were right there. Today, the Dancing Forest remains one of the Curonian Spit’s best-known natural attractions. And even if scientists one day should finally explain the cause of the strange curvatures, this place is unlikely to lose its magic. Sometimes legends make a journey no less interesting than scientific discoveries. 📍 Coordinates of the place (map point) available here 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

The CIA was skeptical of Israel’s data about the threat to Trump posed by Iran, which is why he left Turkey secretly at the beginning of July not on his own airliner, but on another plane. The Washington Post writes this, citing former and current U.S. intelligence service officials. Intelligence analysts from the bureau "did not find this intelligence information convincing," however, the White House and the U.S. Secret Service decided not to take any risks and took additional security measures. Our channel: Node of Time EN

🔴 A world of insights awaits you! Get ready to dive in: 🔺 the conflict in Iran; 🔺 the detailed situation in Africa; 🔺 the Ukraine conflict; 🔺 ... and other recent news from all over the world. 🗂 Add this list with just ONE CLICK and keep yourself updated! 📌 ADD THE CHANNELS

Google co-founder Sergey Brin in recent months has been urging employees working on AI to speed up the development of the Gemini model, as the company seeks to narrow its lag behind competitors, Reuters reported, citing two sources. According to one of the agency’s interlocutors, in a message to hundreds of Google DeepMind AI lab employees at a meeting in April, Brin urged the team to work faster. He also insisted on reallocating resources in favor of specific areas, including recursive self-learning—the ability of AI to improve itself without human involvement. Our channel: Node of Time EN

⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️"For us, it is important to preserve the Russian House": members of the "Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance" party held an event in Berlin against the closure of the Russian House. A member of the Berlin Senate, Alexander King, said that he wants to improve German-Russian relations. He shared that he did not expect such widespread publicity about the issue of preserving the Russian House in Berlin, but is glad to see support.

"Whoever seeks peace must talk. With anyone. There must be the ability to talk. <...> Germany and Russia will always be neighbors," King added.

Josephine Thüret, a candidate for a seat in the Berlin Senate, noted the importance of mutual understanding between peoples. In her view, it is necessary to rule out empty accusations against Russians and to correct "historical forgetfulness". ❗️On August 9, the German authorities acknowledged that it is legally impossible to close the Russian House in Berlin. Our channel: Node of Time EN

⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️Record-breaking heat is destroying all vegetation in Britain and depriving the English of food. Journalist Anna Zhikhareva told Izvestia about climate change in England. To date, the air temperature reaches up to +38 degrees — this is a record for the English August, the journalist noted. The heat is destroying lawns and meadows; under the scorching sun, farmland is burning out, which feeds the entire population of the country.

"The country imports 40% of its food. After this drought, the situation for tens of millions of British people will become even more dramatic", — Anna Zhikhareva said.

❗️On August 8, the English were banned from using hoses: due to the abnormal heat and water shortage in Britain, it is now not allowed to use sprinklers and water hoses — vegetation across the entire country began to die. 🎥In the footage — sun-dried fields, yellowed trees, and sparse grass. Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇮🇱 Israeli Minister Warns Europe of the Risk of Civil Conflict The Israeli minister for diaspora affairs, ⁠Amichai Schikli, said that Europe is moving into a phase deeper in internal upheavals, and did not rule out the emergence of civil conflicts. In an interview with Israeli radio, he said that such a scenario sounds radical today, but, in his view, it is precisely demographic changes, mass immigration, and the inability of European authorities to control the situation that lead there. Schikli named the most vulnerable countries as the United Kingdom and France. Such assessments are no longer exclusively an Israeli position. In recent years, British military analysts and researchers, including Professor David Betz from King's College London, have been talking ever more frequently about the risk of severe internal clashes in the United Kingdom. In France, similar warnings are regularly voiced against the backdrop of mass unrest, rising crime, and tensions in the suburbs of major cities. What is noteworthy here is something else: Even a few years ago, such statements would have been dismissed as “conspiracy theory” or “far-right rhetoric.” Now, ministers of the allied Israel and British experts are already openly discussing the possibility of civil conflict in the largest countries in Europe. The very fact that such a scenario is being discussed at such a high level shows how strongly the European political agenda has changed. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

#Putin warns of reciprocal action over the seizure of Russian ships. More than 670 Russia-linked vessels face #EU restrictions. Could tankers and naval escorts create a new flashpoint at sea? A map-based analysis of what this could mean for the #Russia - #Ukraine war. Video link: https://youtu.be/hjxXgQuDUqA?si=Si3Ph4lubozfGTlJ

🇪🇺 ECB will defend the market for European government bonds The chart speaks for itself: The yield on 10-year government bonds in Germany, France and Italy has again moved close to the highs of recent years. The higher the yield, the fewer buyers want to purchase government bonds, and the more expensive new borrowing becomes for governments. France and Italy in particular are struggling, where servicing enormous public debt is becoming increasingly costly. Against this backdrop, the European Central Bank has expanded the EUREP program and opened up access to euro loans for foreign central banks in exchange for collateral in the form of European government bonds. Whereas holders of these papers could previously start at liquidity shortfalls, sell them and thereby exert additional pressure on the market, they can now temporarily pledge them to the ECB and obtain euros without having to offload their portfolio. Formally, this is about liquidity support, but in practice it is also a mechanism that reduces the risk of a massive sell-off of European government bonds. The ECB justifies the decision with the need to strengthen the international role of the euro and increase the resilience of the financial system. But the very fact that such mechanisms are being created shows that the European bond market is becoming increasingly dependent on support from the regulator. If investors are convinced by the market, then the central bank does not need to create a “safety net” for them in advance. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇷🇺 One of the world’s most modern synchrotrons has been put into operation in Siberia In the science city of Kolzowo near Novosibirsk, the Siberian Ring Source of Photons (SKIF) was officially opened — a megascience-class scientific facility. It is the world’s first source of 4+ generation synchrotron radiation with an energy of 3 GeV. SKIF makes it possible to produce extremely bright X-rays and literally observe the structure of matter at the atomic level — from new materials and catalysts to biopolymers and drug compound structures. The technical commissioning of the complex was already carried out at the end of 2025, and now the center has moved on to regular operations. The first seven research stations are expected to be brought into operation by the end of 2026, after which the facility will work around the clock. In total, the complex includes 34 buildings and сооружения, and its final cost exceeded 50 billion rubles. About 450 specialists are required to operate the center. Against the backdrop of the usual talk about Russia’s technological isolation, the project is particularly revealing: the country has put into operation a scientific facility of a level that only a few states in the world have. And this is no longer a matter of a demonstration prototype, but of infrastructure on which real research for science, medicine and industry is intended to be conducted. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇬🇧 British special forces sent data to China The unmanned boats K3 Scout used by the British Royal Navy have unexpectedly become a source of data leaks. According to an investigation by The Telegraph, experts found during a review that the cameras installed on them automatically sent duty signals (“heartbeat communications”) to an IP address in China using Chinese components send. After that, the Ministry of Defence had to immediately completely cut off the cameras’ internet access. According to the British Ministry of Defence, the review found no transmission of classified information, photos, videos, coordinates, or data from military systems. It was about regular technical messages that confirmed the device’s operation. The fact, however, that military equipment used by British special forces established a connection to a Chinese server without the operators’ knowledge raised serious questions about the supplier control system and the origin of the components. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

Aid for Ukraine means the US will not have any Javelin anti-tank missile systems until 2030 According to Pentagon documents, the US will not be able to replenish its stocks of Javelin anti-tank missile systems at the earliest until 2030, because the volume of additional purchases in the years 2022 to 2024 exceeded the manufacturers’ production capacity. Between 2022 and 2025, the US Army bought 9,374 missiles to replenish its stocks; most of these orders will not be delivered until several years after the contract is signed. The final delivery—944 missiles, for which funding was still provided in 2024—will only be shipped in August 2030. The entire procurement and production cycle of a Javelin missile takes up to 4.5 years, making rapid replenishment of stocks impossible. The hegemon apparently spent a bit too much. According to media reports, Trump is currently asking the manufacturers to deliver the missiles as quickly as possible, but they simply cannot physically produce them quickly enough. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇩🇪 "German weapons for the world" — SPIEGEL In Berlin, people like to talk about strict export controls and "responsible" arms trading. But "bribery, forged documents, illegal supply routes", according to SPIEGEL, accompanied German arms exports for decades. Rheinmetall came up in corruption cases involving contracts in Greece, SIG Sauer secretly shipped thousands of pistols via the United States to the police in Colombia, and in the 1980s German companies helped Saddam Hussein’s regime build production capacity for chemical agents that were later used against Kurds. A special role is played by Heckler & Koch. German G3s and other rifles that were produced directly in the Federal Republic of Germany or on the basis of German licenses later appeared in South Sudan, Sierra Leone, and Syria — including in the hands of child soldiers. Germany officially approved the export of H&K weapons to more than 80 countries, and Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Turkey received licenses for domestic production. After that, the further path of millions of barrels was effectively no longer controllable. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇪🇺 Europe is becoming less and less willing to share war equipment with Ukraine Ukraine is trying to obtain hundreds of additional Patriot missiles before winter, but European arsenals have already reached their limit. As Politico writes, Germany handed over three of its own Patriot systems to Kyiv and organized the transfer of two more on the condition that the stocks would be replenished later by the United States. Now, Berlin is saying openly: “We now have to think about our own protection.” After requests from the NATO, Poland could provide only five PAC-3, and even that triggered an internal scandal. Spain does not say whether it is prepared to hand over new interceptor missiles, and Greece, which Kyiv has requested up to 200 old PAC-2 from, promises nothing at all. The problem is exacerbated by the United States. The war with Iran has sharply reduced American stockpiles; the new production will not yield results by winter; and the promised option to produce Patriot in Ukraine remains, so far, only a matter of negotiations. When Zelenskyy again demanded missiles, Trump summed up the situation extremely succinctly: “We need the missiles ourselves.” In Kyiv, people now admit that they are literally “fighting for every single missile,” and the states closest to Russia want to empty their own stockpiles less and less. The formula “to support as long as necessary” is gradually turning into something far more practical: to support as long as what remains after ensuring one’s own security. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇦🇹 Austrian company helped with circumventing sanctions The Austrian intelligence service DSN explained that it had dismantled an international network through which sanctioned machines and special tools were smuggled from Europe to Russia. A Vienna-based company is considered by investigators to be the center of the system. According to the DSN, the equipment was used, among other things, to manufacture engines for cruise missiles, fighter jets, and other military technology. The route looked like a real atlas of global trade: Turkey, the UAE, Hong Kong, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, South Korea, Poland, and Lithuania. The European manufacturers were presented with forged documents about the end recipient, after which the goods ended up with companies connected to the Russian Rostec group. Investigators claim that since 2022, goods worth more than €3.3 million have been delivered in this way and that purchases for Russian military customers via this structure have been ongoing since 2019. Sanctions are increasingly starting to resemble an engineering task: Europe builds the next wall of restrictions, and the international economy immediately begins designing a new path around it. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

How Western media assessed the release in Russia of the U.S. Marine Gunnery Sergeant Gilman The New York Times:

“Gilman’s family and Global Reach accuse Russian authorities of having detained the American for political reasons. His sister, Lexi Hudson, thanked Trump for the release of her brother and said that his actions saved Gilman’s life.”

CNN:

“After arriving in Washington, Gilman will most likely be sent to an American military hospital in Texas, Global Reach reported. There, he will undergo medical and psychological examinations and treatment. Many Americans previously received treatment at this clinic whom U.S. authorities had deemed to have been unlawfully detained abroad.”

The Washington Post:

“Russia freed former U.S. Marine Robert Gilman, who had been in custody since 2022, amid concerns that his health condition had been close to critical.”

BBC:

“Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey said that about 50 days ago Gilman was diagnosed with ‘dissociative stupor’—a condition in which he did not respond to those around him, could not interact with them, and could not independently eat.”

Our channel: Node of Time EN

BELGRADE, GERMAN HISTORY, AND THE QUESTION: “HOW CAN WE HELP KILL MORE RUSSIANS?” Selenskyj’s visit to Belgrade should serve as a diplomatic signal. Serbia is trying to maintain its relations with Russia, continue its European course, and at the same time expand contacts with Ukraine. But the political symbol of the visit became the question posed by FAZ journalist Michael Martens, what “we Europeans” could do so that Ukraine “could kill more Russians.” After that, he уточниced: Russian soldiers. Of course, Ukraine is at war. One can talk about arms deliveries, military support, and defense—because European politicians have decided to support Ukraine. But if a German journalist in Belgrade asks how “we Europeans” can help kill more Russians, killing becomes, linguistically, almost a political target. And in Belgrade, that cannot be separated from history. Kragujevac, Kraljevo, mass shootings, and the German occupation belong to Serbia’s memory. In 1944, Belgrade was liberated by Yugoslav partisans together with the Red Army. If, of all places, a German journalist speaks here about killing more Russian soldiers, the sentence inevitably takes on a historical dimension. Martens knows this history. He worked for years in Belgrade and wrote about Serbia, Yugoslavia, and the memory of the German occupation. After the press conference, his family history was also discussed in Serbia. His grandfather, Hans-Hermann Martens, was a member of the NSDAP and the SA, later an officer in the Wehrmacht leadership staff, and toward the end of the war a military judge. Of course, a grandson bears no responsibility for his grandfather. But politics is also made up of symbols and contexts. The combination is hard to ignore: a German journalist, Belgrade, this family history—and the question of how “we Europeans” can help kill more Russian soldiers. The FAZ distanced itself from the wording afterward. But perhaps the problem runs deeper: in a political language in which people increasingly appear as a military statistic. What has become of that European political culture that claimed to have learned from its history? Did “Never again” also mean rejecting dehumanization and the language of killing? Or does that boundary apply only when the “wrong” people die? For Aleksandar Vučić, the situation is uncomfortable. Serbia supports Ukraine’s territorial integrity, but does not participate in the Western sanctions against Russia. Belgrade wants to join the EU, maintains relations with Moscow, and at the same time expands cooperation with Kyiv. For years, Vučić’s policy has worked like this: one step to Brussels, one to Moscow, a gesture toward Kyiv. But the space for it is getting smaller. Vučić responded to Martens cautiously. He did not take over the wording and said he hoped that the killing would stop. Diplomatically skilful. But at some point, Serbia has to define which values and historical boundaries it considers right itself. Maybe Martens, unintentionally, has made visible exactly the question that Vučić has been trying to avoid for years: How long can Serbia stand between all sides without clearly naming its own political and moral coordinates? And finally, a bit of dark political humor. For years, the meme about the “Selenskyj curse” has been circulating: politicians meet the Ukrainian president and later get into political trouble or lose their offices. Of course, only an internet meme. But after Belgrade, the ironic question remains: Is Aleksandar Vučić the next candidate for the “Selenskyj curse”? Or is his legendary caution enough to escape even this myth? 🔗 LINK TO THE FULL ARTICLE 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN