Ukraine
Grimes’ Met Gala 2021 Accessories Are Going Up for Auction to Benefit Ukrainians
If you liked Grimes‘ Met Gala 2021 look, here’s your chance to own some of it while supporting a good cause. The musician is donating some of the accessories from her outfit in support of Ukrainians trying to escape the country as Russia continues its assault on the country. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “Hey guys – I’m auctioning stuff from my Met Gala look last year to raise money to help get BIPOC families out of Ukraine since they’re having trouble exiting at the border,” she shared on Instagram Monday (May 16). The 34-year-old singer — who made headlines by carrying a sword cast from an AR-15 at the annual fashion event last year — also shared photos of the items she is auctioning, including the CHRISHABANA x Dune Harkonnen Mask ...
In Record-Setting Fashion, Ukraine Rides Popular Sentiment to 2022 Eurovision Win
Ukraine’s rap and folk group Kalush Orchestra, riding a record number of votes from the public and a kinetic song that became an anthem for suffering mothers, overtook the United Kingdom, Sweden and Spain to capture the 66th Eurovision Song Contest in a nail-biter in Turin, Italy. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news While the oddsmakers, pundits and fans pegged Ukraine as the clear favorite to win going into Saturday’s final, it didn’t look good after the jury vote, when Ukraine was in fourth place with 192 points and the U.K. was in first with 283. The juries were not especially kind to Ukraine, with some countries, like the Netherlands, giving them no points at all. Poland, Moldova, Latvia, Romania and Lithuania — all countries that are c...
Crypto donations fund ATVs and gas masks for Ukrainian military
Ukrainian officials have used funds from the crypto donation platform launched by the government to purchase supplies for the country’s military amid its ongoing war with Russia. In a Friday tweet, Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, announced that the country had purchased five all-terrain vehicles, which “will come in handy for a challenging environment” — possibly referring to conditions near the front lines with Russia or where roads have been damaged or destroyed. Funds for three of the ATVs originated from Aid for Ukraine, a platform the government launched in March that accepts crypto donations “to support people in their fight for freedom.” Three ATVs for defenders are funded for crypto donations @_AidForUkraine, two more — supplied by the Minister of De...
How blockchain archives can change how we record history in wartime
Decentralized blockchain technology has been around for a relatively short period of time, in the grand scheme of things, but its decentralized nature has the power to keep data and information out of the hands of censors looking to create a “safe” and “faultless” version of history. Blockchain is permissionless and literally owned by no one. So, while we can’t save the Alexandria libraries of the past, we can make sure the future is well equipped with the tools necessary to preserve historical records. Here we’ll look at some of the ways nonfungible tokens (NFT) and blockchain technology have been used for keeping archives, the potential downfalls of such technology, and what the future holds for blockchain-based storage systems. NFTs and archives While many current use cases ...
Bono and The Edge Surprise Ukrainian Soldiers with Concert in Bomb Shelter
Bono and The Edge performed a surprise acoustic concert from a Kyiv bomb shelter on Sunday in support of the Ukrainian people in the midst of their ongoing war with Russia. “President @ZelenskyyUa invited us to perform in Kyiv as a show of solidarity with the Ukrainian people and so that’s what we’ve come to do. — Bono and The Edge #StandWithUkraine,” U2 tweeted from their official account ahead of the impromptu set, which took place in the converted Kryschatek metro station. According to a report by The Irish Times, the rock star duo ran through a number of U2 songs, including “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” “Angel of Harlem,” “With or Without You,” and “Desire” before performing a special rendition of Ben E. King’s classic “Stand By Me” alongside a golden-voiced Ukrainian soldier. Advertisement ...
Les Claypool and Gogol Bordello’s Eugene Hütz Lead All-Star Tribute “Zelensky: The Man with the Iron Balls”: Stream
Ever since Russia began their ongoing invasion of Ukraine back in February, the latter’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has become a household name and a figure of perseverance around the globe. Today, Primus’ Les Claypool and Gogol Bordello’s Eugene Hütz have honored the tenacious leader with a, er, ballsy new anthem called “Zelensky: The Man with the Iron Balls.” Aside from Claypool and Hütz, “Zelensky: The Man with the Iron Balls” boasts some other familiar names: The Police’s Stewart Copeland plays drums, Sean Lennon sings and aids on guitar, Hütz’s bandmate Sergey Ryabtseb plays the fiddle, and Billy Strings joins on the acoustic guitar. The song is backed by a marching band drum beat that will make you want to salute to all the noble steel gonads around the world. Claypool and Hüt...
Nifty News: Grow-to-earn with Snoop — and is Dorsey’s tweet priceless or worthless?
The nonfungible token (NFT) of the first ever tweet made on Twitter by founder Jack Dorsey is currently struggling to attract a bid even 1% of its sale price last year. The iconic “genesis tweet” was sold for 1,630 Ether (ETH) valued at $2.9 million about a year ago on March 22, 2021. The highest current bid for this attempt to auction it is 10.3 ETH worth about $31,739 on NFT marketplace OpenSea. The nonfungible token (NFT) of the first ever tweet made on Twitter by founder Jack Dorsey is currently struggling to attract a bid even 1% of its auction price last year. The genesis tweet made on Twitter by founder Jack Dorsey. Its owner, Bridge Oracle founder Sina Estavi hoped the tweet would generate at least $50 million dollars, half of which he said he would donate to charity after closing ...
Belarus-born crypto platform halts operations for Russians in response to invasion of Ukraine
Crypto trading company Currency.com has announced it halted operations for clients based in Russia following the country’s “violence and disorder” imposed on the people of Ukraine. In a Tuesday announcement, Currency.com said Russian residents would no longer be able to access its services following the platform’s decision to stop Russia-based clients from opening new accounts. According to Currency.com’s website, the Gibraltar-based crypto trading platform has offices in Kyiv, London, and Vilnius, but was previously licensed and headquartered in Belarus. “We condemn the Russian aggression in the strongest possible terms,” said Vitalii Kedyk, head of strategy for the platform’s London operations and CEO of Currency.com’s Ukraine arm. “In these circumstances we can no longer continue to ser...
Sean Penn Says He Considered Joining Ukrainian Armed Forces
Just a few weeks after returning to the US following his pedestrian flee from Ukraine to Poland, Sean Penn says he considered joining Ukraine’s resistance against Russia. In an interview with the new quarterly magazine Hollywood Authentic, the actor said he only would’ve stayed in Ukraine longer to join the country’s armed forces. “The only possible reason for me staying in Ukraine longer last time would’ve been for me to be holding a rifle, probably without body armor, because as a foreigner, you would want to give that body armor to one of the civilian fighters who doesn’t have it or to a fighter with more skills than I have, or to a younger man or woman who could fight for longer or whatever,” Penn said. “So, where I am in life is short of doing that, but if you’ve been in Ukraine ...
Sean Penn Says He Considered Joining Ukrainian Armed Forces
Just a few weeks after returning to the US following his pedestrian flee from Ukraine to Poland, Sean Penn says he considered joining Ukraine’s resistance against Russia. In an interview with the new quarterly magazine Hollywood Authentic, the actor said he only would’ve stayed in Ukraine longer to join the country’s armed forces. “The only possible reason for me staying in Ukraine longer last time would’ve been for me to be holding a rifle, probably without body armor, because as a foreigner, you would want to give that body armor to one of the civilian fighters who doesn’t have it or to a fighter with more skills than I have, or to a younger man or woman who could fight for longer or whatever,” Penn said. “So, where I am in life is short of doing that, but if you’ve been in Ukraine ...
Monero defies crypto market slump with 10% XMR price rally — what’s next?
Privacy-focused cryptocurrency Monero (XMR) rallied by nearly 9.5% in the past week compared with the crypto market’s decline of 8.5% in the same period. What’s more, the XMR/USD pair has broken above a strong, multi-month resistance trendline, hinting at more upside ahead. XMR price action XMR’s price was down by a modest 0.87% on April 10 from its two-month-high of $245 established a day before. However, the cryptocurrency still outperformed its top rivals, including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), on a weekly timeframe. Speculations about entities using Monero to bypass sanctions could have boosted its appeal among investors. Meanwhile, The American research group Brookings warned last month that Monero, the first in the line of privacy coins, could...
‘I’ve never paid with crypto before’: How digital assets make a difference amid a war
The ongoing conflict in Ukraine has become a stress test for crypto in many tangible ways. Digital assets have emerged as an effective means of directly supporting humanitarian efforts, and the crypto industry, despite enormous pressure, has largely proved itself a mature community — one ready to comply with international policies without compromising the core principles of decentralization. But there is another vital role that crypto has filled during these tragic events: It is becoming more and more familiar to those who have found themselves cut off from the payment systems that had once seemed unfailing. Traditional financial infrastructures don’t usually work well during military confrontations and humanitarian crises. From hyperinflation and cash shortages to the destruction of ATMs,...
