Russian President Vladimir Putin flew to Berlin to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Before the start of the talks, they made statements according to which the talks would be devoted to the situations with the Iranian nuclear deal, the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, the situation in Syria and Ukraine, as well as the topic of human rights. According to Deutsche Welle, the format of the meeting does not include a final press conference.

Reddit users found a photo of Elizabeth II, in which the Queen seems to be blown away by the wind - she holds her hat and seems to be trying to keep her balance. The picture was taken in 2011 on the island of Anglesey in Wales, where she came to visit Prince William at a military air base - and, as the British media wrote then, she really almost lost her hat due to the wind. PsBattle: The Queen stepping out of the car during a gust of wind.

The authorities in Lausanne have refused to grant Swiss citizenship to a North African couple who, during an interview with the naturalization commission, did not answer questions from people of the opposite sex and shake hands with them. According to BBC News, the interview did not discuss the religious affiliation of the spouses, however, according to BBC News, it was clear that they were Muslims.

Roland Schlager / Pool / AP / Scanpix / Leta August 18 President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin attended the wedding of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Austria Karin Knaisl. According to unofficial data , Putin’s gift was a performance by the participants of the Kuban Cossack choir. Knaisl’s political opponents criticized her for an invitation to the holiday of the “most aggressive foreign enemy of Europe” and called for resigning.

Roman Demyanenko / TASS Roman Shincarkin at an unauthorized action in Moscow, March 26, 2017 On the afternoon of August 18, the Mash telegram channel announced the death of two young people in the city of Zheleznodorozhny near Moscow. The 18-year-old young man and a 20-year-old girl jumped from the roof of a multi-storey building; According to Mash, they were handcuffed to each other.

The editor-in-chief of Ekho Moskvy Alexei Venediktov said that on the afternoon of August 18, the radio station's YouTube channel was hacked and deleted by unknown attackers. When you try to open a channel , the message "This channel does not exist" appears. According to Venediktov, Echo is transferring its broadcasts to another channel, Echo Society . Update. At 18:45 Venediktov announced that the main Ekho Moskvy channel had resumed work.

Magomed Suleimanov, head of the Mandatory Medical Insurance Fund (OMI) of Dagestan, was detained on suspicion of fraud and the creation of a criminal community. According to investigators, from 2010 to 2018, Suleimanov, together with his accomplices, among whom were his subordinates, stole more than 210 million rubles. The suspects allegedly transferred money from the fund for medical services that were not provided using forged documents.

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has appointed head of the Development Bank Sergei Rumas as prime minister of the country. Andrey Kobyakov has held this position since 2014. Lukashenka also replaced deputy prime ministers and appointed several new heads of departments, including instead of the recently dismissed ministers of architecture and industry. “In our government <...> it was like this: let's declare this course, and then we will pursue a different course <...>.

Yuri Tutov / PhotoXPress People in Russia are tortured all the time. By prison guards, police officers, investigators, FSB agents, and others. They’re beaten with fists, clubs, bottles of water, kicked, handcuffed, tied up, electrocuted, suffocated, strangled, gassed, and waterboarded. They’re starved, deafened, and forced to shit themselves. But it’s impossible to say how many people are tortured in Russia — there are no reliable statistics here.

Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan died at the age of 80. This was stated by representatives of the Fund of his name. Denis Balibouse / Reuters / Scanpix / Leta Kofi Annan was born in the British colony of the Golden Coast (after gaining independence - Gan) in 1938.

The former head of the campaign headquarters of Alexei Navalny, Leonid Volkov, tweeted a request from the Bashkir center "E" to the security service "VKontakte" about the pages of the headquarters activists in Ufa, as well as a response from the social network with information about users.

A fragment of Anton Dolin's book “Takesi Kitano. Children's years " Franco Origlia / Getty images At the end of September, the publishing house “New Literary Review” will be released by a new supplemented edition of the book of film critic Anton Dolina “Tuysya Kitano. Children's years ”about the legendary Japanese director.

In Genoa, rescuers found at the site of the collapse of the bridge another car with the dead - spouses with a 9-year-old daughter. Later it became known about the discovery of the body of a 30-year-old man. Thus, it is now known about 42 dead as a result of the collapse of the bridge. A 45-meter-high road bridge collapsed in Italian Genoa on the afternoon of August 14 during a thunderstorm. Several dozen people were killed, who were in cars on the bridge and below, where debris fell.

Your Browser Does Not Support the Audio Element. “Imagine you are Robinson Crusoe. So: the ship will not come. " Issue without illusions Galya Timchenko, Katya Krongauz and Lika Kremer answer the questions of the listeners: - I liked the consultant in the store and therefore I was ashamed to buy toilet paper, what's wrong with me? (02:46) - I was a successful leader. But I had a child with severe autism. My husband distanceed from us, I live with him only because he contains us.

Medusa editors Sultan Suleimanov and Denis Dmitriev explain what network neutrality is - a principle according to which providers cannot give priority to one of the sites or channels - for example, Facebook or Skype. And then they argue whether it is good or bad! Shooting and installation: Leonid Marantidi Producer: Lika Kremer