August 26 in nwsTrail: Russian fuel burns, Israel conquers new territories, mourning in Pakistan and Nepal
kolmapäev, 26. august 2026 20:22
In Russia, the war again reached a place Moscow would rather keep untouched: the heart of its own energy infrastructure. In Kstovo, in the Nizhny Novgorod region, the Lukoil-owned NORSI oil refinery caught fire after reports of a drone attack. This is not some minor facility on the margins. It is Russia’s fourth-largest oil refinery and the country’s second-largest gasoline producer, making diesel and aviation fuel that is used to support Russian forces.
Kstovo is about 800 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, yet the war no longer stays comfortably far away. The same refinery has already been hit several times this year by Ukrainian attacks, some of which forced production units to stop. Russia can talk about resilience as much as it wants, but when fuel plants burn, the price of the war becomes very concrete even in places where it is usually kept out of sight.
In Israel, meanwhile, the pattern is familiar: security language first, political expansion after. Israeli security forces entered the UNRWA Qalandiya training center on the northern edge of occupied East Jerusalem, in an operation led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Israeli authorities cited the law that banned the UN aid agency’s activity. It is a convenient framework: if an organization no longer suits the government, it can be declared the problem, and once it is the problem, its spaces and services can be pushed aside.
But there is a larger map around this raid. The Qalandiya center sits next to the historic airport, and Israel affairs expert Adel Shadid said Israel wants full control of the airport area in order to build more than 9,000 settlement units and a Jewish heritage center. In his view, merging the training center and airport area into an Israeli-controlled municipality would advance the so-called Greater Jerusalem project, covering 12 to 13 percent of the West Bank and bringing more than 800 square kilometers under that municipality’s control. Add the warning that control of Qalandiya would affect movement between Jerusalem and Ramallah, and this is no longer just a raid on one center.
Meta agreed to change settings on Facebook and Instagram in and pay up to $18 billion to settle claims by most U.S. states. The states accused the company of designing Facebook and Instagram to addict children and of misleading consumers about the platforms’ safety. Meta did not admit wrongdoing, which is almost a ritual in settlements like this: pay a huge sum, change some rules, and still say nothing was really wrong.
Under the agreement, teen use of Facebook and Instagram will be limited for the next ten years to two hours a day, and use from midnight to 6 a.m. will be blocked unless a parent gives permission. The company must also strengthen measures to keep children away from age-restricted content. That sounds significant until one notices what the deal does not require: no end to personalized recommendations, no end to targeted advertising, and no deep restructuring of the company.
In Pakistan, the most painful story of the day came from Islamabad, where 14 infants died in a fire at the Pims hospital. In a case like this, official explanations can sound especially hollow, because the question is not only where the fire started. It is also why there were conflicting accounts at the scene, why locked gates were mentioned, why some people present said much of the rescue work was done by ordinary people themselves, and why there was confusion even over identifying the bodies.
Different accounts pointed either to an air-conditioning fault or a problem with incubators. One firefighter said rescuers found the northern and western gates locked, set up ladders, broke two openings into the building, and began the rescue. Journalists at the scene described conflicting timelines and conflicting versions of events. A hospital is where parents hand over the most vulnerable life they have, trusting that it will be protected.
Along the Nepal-Tibet border, nature showed how quickly an entire area can become mud, debris, and lists of missing people. According to Nepalese police, at least 95 people were killed in a massive flood, many others are missing, and about 28 police personnel were also unaccounted for. A flow of mud and debris burst over the banks of a river between China and Nepal, swept away homes, and left 403 tourists, including 341 foreigners, without contact for several hours.
Heavy reports also came from the Chinese side: authorities said three people were killed in a mudslide and 265 were missing, though the figures were still being checked and it was not immediately clear whether they overlapped with Nepal’s numbers. Nepal’s army sent helicopters and disaster units to the area, China’s president ordered an all-out rescue effort, and Nepal’s prime minister called for national unity.
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