Chinese scientists Yu Cao, Shuang Zhang and Ke-Ming Ma have found that street lights left on overnight make leaves so tough that insects cannot eat them. According to The Guardian, this puts the food chain at risk. "We noticed that, compared with natural ecosystems, tree leaves in most urban ecosystems generally showed little evidence of insect damage. We wondered why.

A resident of the Tyumen region signed a contract to participate in the war in Ukraine, received a one-time payment of 600 thousand rubles from the Ministry of Defense, and then refused to go to the combat zone, citing mental health issues. This was reported by Ura.ru with reference to the unified press service of the judicial system of the region. "The Department of Social Protection of the Population of the Noyabrsk Administration to Evgeniy S.

A case of violation of the laws on "foreign agents" has been opened against former State Duma deputy from "United Russia" Magomed Gadzhiev, who was one of the co-authors of the laws currently in force in Russia, the publication "Sibirsky Express" writes about this, citing data from the Gunibsky District Court of Makhachkala. Gadzhiev first became a State Duma deputy in 2003, and was then re-elected three more times.

Singer Zemfira commented on the silver medals of Russian tennis players Mirra Andreeva and Diana Schneider at the Olympics in Paris in her Telegram channel . The singer congratulated the athletes and personally addressed State Duma deputy Svetlana Zhurova, who had previously criticized the athletes. After the match, Zhurova said that Schneider and Andreeva's Olympic medals have nothing to do with Russia. "They won medals for themselves, and of course, we can congratulate them on that.

American multirole F-16 fighters will help Ukraine defend its territory from Russian missiles and drones. However, Ukraine is unlikely to gain the upper hand over the Russian Air Force due to the small number of F-16s delivered, The Economist writes , citing military experts. The fighter jets delivered to Ukraine could primarily boost the morale of the Ukrainian military, says Douglas Barry, an expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

And this forces the Ministry of Defense to increase salaries for new contractors and form infantry regiments from aviation mechanics The offensive of Russia in Ukraine continues - the losses of the armed forces are growing. Military authorities and power are desperately trying to replace the retired soldiers, promising to pay a lot of money to new contractors, which even wire bloggers are not at all happy.

MEPs are asking the European Commission to take action against Hungary, including excluding the country from the Schengen zone, Politico reported . It is noted that the deputies are dissatisfied with the decision of the Hungarian authorities to simplify the conditions for obtaining a residence permit in the country for citizens of Russia and Belarus.

Bloomberg broke the news of the prisoner swap on August 1, before it had even happened. According to New York Magazine, this caused outrage among American journalists and officials. The publication writes that Bloomberg was the first to report on the exchange of journalist Evan Gershkovich and former Marine Paul Whelan, but at the time of publication, the plane with political prisoners was flying over Russian territory.

In Novosibirsk, local City Council deputy Svetlana Kaverzina laid flowers at the monument to victims of political repression in memory of pianist and anti-war activist Pavel Kushnir, who died in the Birobidzhan pretrial detention center after he declared a "dry" hunger strike. Kaverzina herself wrote about this on her Telegram channel. "You know what's the saddest thing? We didn't know...

Paraguayan swimmer Luana Alonso announced her retirement after an unsuccessful performance at the Paris Olympics, but wanted to stay with the national team until the end of the competition. However, the Paraguayan Olympic Committee asked the athlete to leave the Olympic village, Marca reports . "You are requested to leave the Olympic Village immediately. Your presence creates an unsuitable atmosphere within the Paraguayan team.

Deputy Chairman of the State Duma for the Protection of the Family, Fatherhood, Motherhood and Childhood Vitaly Milonov told Parlamentskaya Gazeta that he is preparing a bill to ban tattoos for people under 18. "If a person has grown up and really wants to decorate himself with the inseparable pattern of Soviet camps and the Russian criminal world, that is his right. But getting tattoos before the age of 18 is extremely dangerous," Milonov said.

Travel in the cheapest reserved seat carriages has increased in price by almost a quarter in the first half of the year, Vedomosti calculated based on Rosstat data. In January-June 2023, tickets for reserved seat carriages on so-called non-branded trains cost 23% less. Tickets for branded reserved seat trains cost 17% more by July 2024 than a year ago, 401 rubles per hundred kilometers.

Global financial markets showed record falls in quotes on Monday, August 5. Major Asian stock exchanges closed shortly after the start of trading. The main indicator of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the Nikkei 225 index , repeated the rate of decline of 37 years ago. At the opening of trading in Europe, shares of American technology companies collapsed . Cryptocurrencies set anti-records for price decline.

In the city of Mariinsk in the Kemerovo Region, a drunk deputy head of the investigative police department hit a man in her personal car, the Baza Telegram channel reported . The driver did not immediately notice the man who had been hit by the wheels and dragged him several meters along the asphalt. The video of the incident was first published by the Mariinsk Podslushano Telegram channel. The accident occurred on the evening of August 3.

The American newspaper The New York Times published details of the life in Europe of Artem and Anna Dultsev, who returned to Russia as part of a large-scale prisoner exchange on August 1. The publication, citing sources, writes that the Dultsevs were "illegals" - deeply undercover agents who operate without diplomatic cover and live outside of Russia for decades. Such spies were actively planted by Soviet intelligence during the Cold War.