Sunday, May 01, 2022
TON (The Open Network): Telegram now supports Toncoin transactions with no fees attached
Telegram now lets users send cryptocurrency through TON blockchain spinoff
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"The Open Network (TON) was built off of Telegram’s deserted cryptocurrency project.
Telegram now lets users send Toncoin, the cryptocurrency built off of Telegram’s abandoned blockchain effort, directly from chats within the messaging app (via Protocol).
In a post on Twitter, TON (The Open Network), announced that Telegram now supports Toncoin transactions with no fees attached.
TON included a short video showing how crypto transactions work on the platform. To get started, you’ll have to add Telegram’s Wallet bot to your attachment menu, which allows you to “purchase cryptocurrency by bank card, exchange, and transfer to other wallets.”
You can now send #Toncoin directly within Telegram chats!
It’s a new way to send Toncoin without transaction fees to any Telegram user. With this service, you’ll no longer need to enter long wallet addresses and wait for confirmations.
Watch the video and test the new feature! pic.twitter.com/EtXSMFtJj6
— TON (@ton_blockchain) April 26, 2022
When you’re ready to send crypto, you can pull up the Wallet from your attachment menu while in a chat, enter the amount of Toncoin you want to send, confirm all the details, and then hit “Send.” Your recipient will receive the Toncoin through the chat.
In 2020, Telegram shut down its own cryptocurrency operation after facing pressure from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The project, originally known as the Telegram Open Network (TON), was developed by Telegram CEO Pavel Durov and his brother Nikolai in 2018. A year later, the SEC ordered Telegram to halt its sales of Gram, the token linked to the TON blockchain, after saying it failed to register the $1.7 billion in sales collected as part of its pre-Initial Coin Offering (ICO).
Even after Telegram abandoned the TON project, a group of developers kept it afloat, renaming it The Open Network and rebranding Gram as Toncoin. Durov expressed his support of the project last December, noting “I’m proud that the technology we created is alive and evolving... TON is still years ahead of everything else in the blockchain realm.” Earlier this month, the TON Foundation managed to raise $1 billion in donations."
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INTENTIONAL AMBIGUITY Injects A New Element Into The Kinetic Military Equation of War
Intro: If Western weaponry were deployed in striking Russia, it would fuel Russian propaganda that blames the West for the war and enhance the possibility that the conflict could spill past Russia and Ukraine’s borders.
KYIV, Ukraine — A fuel depot in Russia burst into flames, moments after surveillance video captured the bright streaks of rockets fired from low-flying helicopters. A fire broke out at a military research institute near Moscow. Additional fuel tanks have exploded.
. . .Russia has accused Ukraine of carrying out the helicopter strike and military analysts have suggested that Ukrainian sabotage is very likely responsible for the other fires. Ukraine, for its part, has made no official admissions but instead has winked at the possibility of its involvement, with one official suggesting the fires were just Russia’s bad “karma.”
Now, a senior Ukrainian official has described in the clearest terms yet his government’s policy on strikes inside Russia, calling it one of strategic ambiguity.
“We don’t confirm, and we don’t deny,” said the official, Oleksei Arestovych, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff.
Mr. Arestovych, in an interview, compared the approach to Israel’s longstanding policy of ambiguity on nuclear arms, another issue of extraordinary geopolitical sensitivity.
“After what has been happening, officially we don’t say yes and we don’t say no, just like Israel,” he said.
Any escalation of attacks on Russia by Ukraine could have far-reaching implications, perhaps influencing public opinion about the war in Russia, or inflaming the Kremlin to the point of escalating its own strikes.
If Western weaponry were deployed in striking Russia, it would fuel Russian propaganda that blames the West for the war and enhance the possibility that the conflict could spill past Russia and Ukraine’s borders.
The fires at Russian military sites, beginning with the April 1 helicopter assault on the fuel depot in Belgorod, about 15 miles from the Ukrainian border, have injected a new element into the military equation of the war. . .
The strikes come in two forms: the clear military attack with low-flying helicopters near the border, and sabotage deeper inside Russia.
Russian and Ukrainian media reports have attributed a dozen or so blazes to strikes or sabotage. In addition to the helicopter strike there have been at least three other fires at military sites that seem suspicious, and which military analysts have said were very likely set intentionally.
And while some fires point clearly to an assault or an act of sabotage — such as the two fires that broke out in quick succession at fuel tanks in Bryansk on April 25 — others have remained inscrutable, with neither Russia nor Ukraine suggesting a relation to the war.
. . .Ukrainian officials, for their part, have hinted at their involvement with dark humor.A deputy interior minister, Anton Gerashchenko, posted on Twitter a “no smoking” sign beside a picture of the fuel depots in Bryansk engulfed in flame.
. . .“If you decided to attack another country, commit mass murder, crush peaceful people with tanks, and to support murder using warehouses in your region, then sooner or later the time will come to repay that debt,” said Mykhailo Podolyak, a negotiator for President Volodymyr Zelesnky. “So, the disarmament of the killers’ warehouses in Belgorod and Voronezh regions is just a completely wholesome, natural process. Karma is a harsh thing.”
Mr. Arestovych’s comment on Ukrainian policy was the most forthright so far laying out the Ukrainian government’s position of ambiguity, even as officials in Kyiv have been openly suggesting Russians should expect a continuing spat of mysterious fires.
So far, Ukraine has received public support from Britain for directly attacking Russia, with James Heappey, an official in the Foreign Secretary’s Office, saying the strikes were “completely legitimate” given the role of fuel and ammunition depots in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Mr. Heappey also endorsed the use of British-supplied weaponry, saying its use to strike inside Russia was “not necessarily a problem.”
The Russian military, which has been firing missiles and artillery at Ukrainian cities and military targets including fuel depots, continuously for two months now, warned on April 13 against Ukraine striking back.
The ministry spokesman, Igor Konashenkov, told Russian news agencies that Russia would respond by targeting the Ukrainian leadership. “We see efforts at diversions and strikes by the Ukrainian military at objects in the Russian Federation,” he said. “If these instances continue, the Russian army will target decision making centers, including in Kyiv.”
. . .In the Ukrainian military, the arson fires and helicopter assault into Russian territory have also served the purpose of lifting morale. Having seen the effectiveness of their small unit tactics against the Russian army in the battle for Kyiv in March, midlevel Ukrainian commanders have suggested continuing this strategy inside Russia.
“It will not end until we bring the war to Russia,” said the commander of a Ukrainian brigade, who asked that he be identified only by his nickname, Akula, because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
“It’s not a secret that the Russian people support the war, that it is not just Putin and the rest of the Russians are peaceful,” he said.
“We need to make Russian society fear” attacks on their own country to shift perceptions," he said. . ."
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/30/world/europe/ukraine-russia-attack-denials.html
BUNKER MEDIA: Previously Unannounced Visits and Secret Missions
Intro: Western delegations want to get in the act in staged photo pops provided by the Ukraanian President's Press Office
Pelosi concludes secret visit to Ukraine
The House speaker, who is second in line to the presidency, is now the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the war-battered nation since Russia’s invasion began
"Speaker Nancy Pelosi has concluded a secret visit to Ukraine this weekend, becoming the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the war-ravaged country since Russia’s brutal invasion began in February.
Pelosi led the previously unannounced trip with a small group of senior House Democrats, including Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and Rules Committee Chair Jim McGovern (D-Mass.).
The group met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other top officials in Kyiv, the country’s capital. A video posted on Zelenskyy’s Twitter account showed the lawmakers walking the streets of Kyiv before being greeted by the Ukrainian leader outside the presidential palace.
“Our delegation traveled to Kyiv to send an unmistakable and resounding message to the entire world: America stands firmly with Ukraine,” the group said in a statement. “When we return to the United States, we will do so further informed, deeply inspired and ready to do what is needed to help the Ukrainian people as they defend democracy for their nation and for the world.”
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi arrives with her delegation before her meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on April 30, 2022. | Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP
“Our commitment is to be there for you until the fight is done,” Pelosi told Zelenskyy during their meeting.
Her travel follows a visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who entered the country via train and met with Zelenskyy in a windowless underground bunker in Kyiv on April 24.
...President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have not yet traveled to Ukraine, though some other Western heads of state, including U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, have made the journey.
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Pelosi’s visit comes just days after Biden asked Congress to approve an additional $33 billion in emergency funding for Ukraine, including $20 billion for military aid — a massive assistance package and one that underscores the long-term nature of the U.S. commitment. Congressional leaders have vowed to act on the request quickly, but the exact legislative path remains unclear.
“This is historic,” Pelosi said of the proposed aid package at a press conference Friday. “We hope to as soon as possible pass that legislation.”
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Flash News: Ukraine Intercepts Russian Kh-59 Cruise Missile Using US VAMPIRE Air Defense System Mounted on Boat. Ukrainian forces have made ...
