Russia
Dennis Rodman Was Headed To Russia To Help Brittney Griner, State Department Urged Otherwise
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Tim Nwachukwu / Getty Dennis Rodman is most certainly cemented in the annals of history as an NBA legend as evidenced by his championships and awards. The Worm is also something of a diplomat and originally stated he was heading to Russia to assist with the Brittney Griner case but is deciding against the move. ABC News shared in a new report that Dennis Rodman, who told NBC News over the weekend that he had “permission” to “help that girl” in WNBA star Brittney Griner, would not be heading to Russia after State Department officials intervened. State Department spokesperson Ned Price spoke at a press briefing on Monday (August 23), telling ABC News that Rodman would be operating solely on his own if he made the trip. “He would not be traveling on behalf o...
Wild continent: the best national parks in Europe
The best national parks in Europe are home to vast tracts of wilderness, often overlooked by those who flock to its cities When we think of wild continents, Europe is probably last in line. Asia’s fearsome mountains, South America’s lush rainforest and Africa’s vast savannah are surely more impressive. Europe in comparison is famous for its cities: London, Paris, Rome and their ilk. But venture further and you’ll find gigantic glaciers, primeval forests and untouched tracts of wilderness. These areas are quite rightly protected in national parks. To help you explore the wild side of the continent, we share below the best national parks in Europe. Jostedalsbreen National Park Location: NorwayMore info: Official site Jostedalsbreen National Park is home to the largest glacier on contin...
SBI lost 40% of hash rate after stopping mining in Russia: Data
Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings has partly terminated cryptocurrency mining in Russia due to geopolitical uncertainty and the crypto winter. SBI Holdings suspended mining operations in Russia’s crypto mining-rich region of Siberia, citing reasons like Russia-Ukraine conflict and the ongoing bear market, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. The Japanese online brokerage shut down the Siberian mining operations shortly after Russia started a military intervention in Ukraine on Feb. 24, a spokesperson for the firm reportedly said. The termination contributed to SBI’s crypto asset business reporting a pretax loss of 9.7 billion yen ($71 million) in Q2 202. As a result, the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group-backed group recorded a 2.4 billion yen ($17.5 million) in net losses, reportedly posting...
Russia plans to roll out digital ruble across all banks in 2024
The Bank of Russia continues working towards the upcoming adoption of the central bank digital currency (CBDC), planning an official digital ruble rollout in a few years. According to the Bank of Russia’s latest monetary policy update, the authority will begin to connect all banks and credit institutions to the digital ruble platform in 2024. That would be an important year for Russia as the country is expected to hold presidential elections in March 2024 and incumbent President Vladimir Putin has the constitutional right to get re-elected. By that time, the central bank expects to complete “real money” customer-to-customer transaction trials as well as the testing of customer-to-business and business-to-customer settlements. In 2023, the Bank of Russia also intend to conduct beta testing ...
Roger Waters Calls Biden a “War Criminal,” Defends Russia and China in CNN Interview
Amidst his ongoing “This Is Not a Drill Tour,” Roger Waters sat down with CNN’s Michael Smerconish to discuss the overly political themes and messages presented at his concert. Smerconish began the interview by asking Waters why he labeled President Joe Biden a “war criminal.” “Well, he’s fueling the war in the Ukraine,” the former Pink Floyd member responded. “That is a huge crime. Why won’t the United States of America encourage [Volodymyr] Zelensky to negotiate, obviating the need for this horrific, horrendous war?” When Smerconish pointed out that Waters was “blaming the party who got invaded,” Waters countered by criticizing NATO for forcing Russia’s hand. “Well, any war, when did it start? What you need to do is look at the history, and you can say, ‘Well, it started on this day.’ Yo...
Pro-Russian groups raised only 4% of crypto donations sent to Ukraine
According to data from crypto analytics firm Chainalysis, users have sent more than $2 million in crypto to 54 pro-Russian groups since Feb. 24, a fraction of that received by many wallets controlled by the Ukrainian government. In a Friday blog post, Chainalysis said it had tracked funds sent to social media accounts controlled by pro-Russian groups in Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), USDT-TRX, and Dogecoin (DOGE) starting with the country’s invasion of Ukraine in February. According to Chainalysis’ data, users sent roughly $2.2 million to the pro-Russian groups, with more than $1 million going to a single unnamed account. While there may be other groups outside of Chainalysis’ investigation of those supporting pro-Russian forces, the available data suggested that the $2.2 mill...
United States & Russia To Enter Talks In Brittney Griner Prisoner Swap
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV / Getty Brittney Griner and her ongoing Russia ordeal might soon be coming to an end according to a new report. The Biden administration is moving ahead to enter talks with Russia in hopes to exchange Griner and another American with a jailed Russian operative. At a press briefing on Wednesday (July 27), Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave some insight into the United States’ plans to secure the freedom of Brittany Griner while walking the delicate tightrope of international negotiations. From the transcript of the briefing: Related Stories In the coming days, I expect to speak with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov for the first time since the war began. I plan to raise an issue that’s a top priority for us: the release of Americans P...
NFT sales will fund the restoration of physical monuments in Ukraine
The Ukrainian government will be using the proceeds of sales from an online nonfungible token, or NFT, museum to restore artwork in the real world. According to a Friday announcement and information shared with Cointelegraph, Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture and Information Policy said the government’s Meta History Museum of War platform, aimed at preserving the timeline of major events in Russia’s war with Ukraine, raised 803.28 Ether (ETH) — roughly $1.3 million at the time — through NFT sales. The ministry said proceeds from the sales will go toward “the restoration of Ukrainian cultural institutions,” many of which have been damaged or destroyed by missile attacks from Russia. “During the six months of the war in Ukraine, the Russians destroyed hundreds of our museum...
Bulls or bears? Both have a fair chance in Friday’s Bitcoin options expiry
Bitcoin (BTC) briefly broke above $24,000 on July 20, but the excitement lasted less than two hours after the resistance level proved more challenging than expected. A positive is that the $24,280 high represents a 28.5% increase from the July 13 swing low at $18,900. According to Yahoo Finance, on July 19, the Bank of America published its latest fund managers survey, and the headline was “I’m so bearish, I’m bullish.” The report cited investors’ pessimism, expectations of weak corporate earnings and equity allocations being at the lowest level since September 2008. The 4.6% advance on the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index between July 18 and 20 also provided the necessary hope for bulls to profit from the upcoming July 22 weekly options expiry. Global macroe...
Captain Ukraine? Russia Claims It’s Losing to Army of Lab-Created Super Soldiers
Russian officials may have been reading too many comic books, saying the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine has failed to make progress because they are losing to an army of lab-created super soldiers. As reported in Kommersant (via The Daily Beast) an official “investigation” has unveiled “secret experiments” in certain Ukrainian “biolaboratories.” This conspiracy might sound familiar; it began on Twitter but quickly picked up momentum in the mainstream right wing mediasphere including Tucker Carlson. The theory goes that Russia invaded Ukraine to destroy “biolabs” (perhaps funded by Biden and run by Fauci) that would unleash something heinous upon the world (possibly a virus even worse than COVID-19). Russia itself eventually picked up the rumor, happy to spread misinformation that...
‘Token will defeat cryptocurrency’: Russia debuts palladium-backed stablecoin
The Russian government-backed tokenization platform Atomyze has issued its first digital asset backed by palladium in collaboration with the local bank Rosbank. Rosbank officially announced on Monday that it became the first partner of the Russian blockchain firm Atomyze, acting as an investor in Russia’s first digital asset deal with palladium. According to the announcement, the newly issued digital asset is the first digital financial asset (DFA) issued through Atomyze. The platform obtained registration from the Bank of Russia in February 2022, becoming the country’s first legal digital asset manager. Both Atomyze and Rosbank are backed by Interros, a Russian conglomerate and investment firm co-founded by sanctioned oligarch Vladimir Potanin. The CEO of the Russian nickel and palla...
10 most visited countries in the world
We profile some usual suspects plus one or two surprises in the top 10 most visited countries in the world Have you dreamed of a romantic kiss atop the Eiffel Tower? Perhaps you’ve thrown a wish into the Trevi Fountain or stopped and stared at the Sistine Chapel. If so, you’re certainly not alone. According to the last available pre-pandemic figures, France and Italy are two of the most visited countries in the world. Together with the rest of the top 10, they make up a whopping 41% of global tourist arrivals (i.e. overnight visitors). Here’s the complete list of the most visited countries in the world. 10 most visited countries in the world The below figures come from the 2020 edition of the UNWTO’s International Tourism Highlights report. 1. France &nbs...
