One foreign politician took to the stage and strongly had an influence on The Crash? (8)
I believe the answer is:
impacted
'one foreign politician took to the stage and strongly' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.
'an influence on the crash?' is the wordplay.
'an influence' becomes 'imped' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'on' is an insertion indicator (as in clothing \'on\' a person).
'the crash?' becomes 'act' (crash is a kind of act).
'imped' going around 'act' is 'IMPACTED'.
'had' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for impacted that I've seen before include "Had an effect upon" , "Wisdom teeth may be so stuck" , "Wedged or packed in together, as a tooth say" , "had influence" , "Wedged firmly" .)