WASHINGTON: President Vladimir Putin said in an interview released Thursday with controversial right-wing US talk show host Tucker Carlson that the West should understand it is “impossible” to defeat Russia in Ukraine.
In a two-hour interview with the former Fox News host — coming just ahead of the two-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — Putin also said a deal “can be reached” on imprisoned Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
“There are certain terms being discussed via special services channels,” he said, while insisting that the reporter is a spy — something the Journal and US government vehemently deny.
It was the first one-on-one interview of Putin by someone from the Western media since 2019.
However Carlson, who is close to White House candidate and former president Donald Trump, asked few tough questions and largely listened while the Kremlin leader lectured him on his views of Russian history, portraying the country as a victim of Western betrayals.
Putin defended his decision to invade Ukraine in February 2022. And he said the West now realizes that Russia will not be defeated, despite US, European and NATO help to Ukraine.
“Up until now, there has been the uproar and screaming about inflicting a strategic defeat to Russia on the battlefield. But now they are apparently coming to realize that it is difficult to achieve, if possible, at all. In my opinion, it is impossible by definition,” he said.
He also aimed a message at the US Congress, where Trump-dominated Republicans are increasingly reluctant to keep backing Ukraine with weapons and other military aid.
“I will tell you what we are saying on this matter and what we are conveying to the US leadership. If you really want to stop fighting, you need to stop supplying weapons,” he said.
When asked if Moscow would consider invading other countries in the region — NATO members Poland and Latvia — or generally across the European continent, Putin said that was “out of the question.”
“We have no interest in Poland, Latvia or anywhere else. Why would we do that? We simply don’t have any interest. It’s just threat mongering,” Putin said.
A war with Poland, he said, would happen “only in one case: if Poland attacks Russia.”
Asked about a possible change in leadership after the US election, where Biden is expected to face off against Trump in a rematch of their 2020 contest, Putin indicated he would see little change.
“You just asked me if another leader comes and changes something? It is not about the leader. It is not about the personality of a particular person.”
Facing Putin in matching white chairs with a small table between them, Carlson rarely pushed back in his interview in an ornate room at the Kremlin — recorded Tuesday and posted on Carlson’s own website — and did not challenge Putin over his relationship with Trump.
While president and since being defeated by Biden, Trump has repeatedly praised Putin and failed to condemn the invasion of Ukraine — saying that if he was reelected he would be able to solve the war in “24 hours,” though not saying how.
By contrast, Biden has branded Putin a “war criminal” and has made backing for Ukraine’s elected, pro-Western government one of the key priorities of his presidency.
Putin tells West: Russia cannot be defeated in Ukraine
https://arab.news/jk3nf
Putin tells West: Russia cannot be defeated in Ukraine
Coinbase warns of up to $400 million hit from cyberattack
- Hackers bribed staff overseas
- Company rejected $20 million ransom demand
Coinbase forecast a hit of $180 million to $400 million from a cyberattack that breached account data of a “small subset” of its customers, the crypto exchange said in a regulatory filing on Thursday.
The company received an email from an unknown threat actor on May 11, claiming to have information about certain customer accounts as well as internal documents.
While some data — including names, addresses and emails — was stolen, the hackers did not get access to login credentials or passwords, Coinbase said. It would, however, reimburse customers who were tricked into sending funds to the attackers.
Hackers had paid multiple contractors and employees working in support roles outside the US to collect information. The company had fired those involved, it said.
Separately, the US Securities and Exchange Commission had begun scrutinizing whether Coinbase had misstated its user figures, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The agency had also been interested in whether any inaccurate user data could indicate the company had inadequate know-your-customer compliance that is required of firms registered with the SEC, the sources said.
A Coinbase spokesperson denied the SEC was probing the company’s compliance with know-your-customer and Bank Secrecy Act rules.
Another source familiar with the matter said that the SEC did not directly ask questions about such compliance and that it would not be a relevant topic since the SEC
dropped a separate case
against Coinbase alleging the firm failed to register with the SEC.
The inquiry into Coinbase’s “verified user” metric had continued even after the SEC abandoned its other lawsuit, the source said. The New York Times first reported the investigation into user data from past disclosures.
Coinbase shares extended losses after the report and were last down 6.5 percent.
“This is a hold-over investigation from the prior administration about a metric we stopped reporting two and a half years ago, which was fully disclosed to the public,” Coinbase’s chief legal officer, Paul Grewal, said.
“While we strongly believe this investigation should not continue, we remain committed to working with the SEC to bring this matter to a close.”
The SEC declined to comment.
Cracks in crypto
The latest developments come days before the company is set to join the benchmark S&P 500 index, casting a shadow over what was expected to be a landmark moment for the crypto industry.
Security remains a challenge for the crypto industry despite its growing mainstream acceptance. In February, Bybit disclosed a hack in which around $1.5 billion of digital tokens were stolen — widely dubbed the biggest crypto heist of all time.
“The cyberattack may push the industry to adopt stricter employee vetting and introduce some reputational risks,” said Bo Pei, analyst at US Tiger Securities.
Funds stolen by hacking crypto platforms totaled $2.2 billion in 2024, according to a report from Chainalysis.
“As our nascent industry grows rapidly, it draws the eye of bad actors, who are becoming increasingly sophisticated in the scope of their attacks,” said Nick Jones, founder of crypto firm Zumo.
The firm now also faces a lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York, alleging the world’s largest crypto exchange failed to secure and safeguard personally identifiable information of millions of former and current customers, the filing showed.
Coinbase has refused to pay a ransom demand of $20 million from the attackers and is working with law enforcement agencies. It has instead established a $20 million reward for information on the hackers.
The company is also opening a new support hub in the US and taking other measures to prevent such cyberattacks, it said.
Republican House bill would jack up cost of US solar home systems, PV panel makers warn
- Proposed measure would scrap 30 percent tax credit for homeowners with solar panels
- Bill aligned with Trump move to undo Biden-era clean energy program
Companies that put solar panels on US homes say a Republican budget bill advanced in Congress this week would deal a massive blow to the industry by eliminating a generous subsidy for homeowners that had buttressed the industry’s growth.
The bill would scrap a 30 percent federal credit for taxpayers who put up rooftop systems, stifling an industry that has grown ten-fold over the last decade and which now employs more than 100,000 workers, industry players said.
“It certainly is a giant setback,” said Charlie Hadlow, president of EnergySage, an online solar marketplace. “I have solar installers in our large network passing around the contact information for bankruptcy attorneys. That’s not alarmist, that’s happening.”
Many of the biggest residential solar markets are in states that voted for President Donald Trump, including Texas, Florida and Arizona, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association trade group.
The House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee voted this week to allow the 25D tax credit to expire at the end of this year, nine years earlier than planned, as part of a Republican effort to roll back subsidies from former President Joe Biden’s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act.
A spokesperson for Republicans on the committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The bill still has several hurdles to clear before getting a broad package of tax cuts, spending hikes and safety-net reductions through Congress.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump wants to undo federal regulations and programs introduced by Biden that are aimed at expanding clean energy and combating climate change.
More than half of residential installations qualify for the 25D tax credit, according to EnergySage, which estimates that rooftop systems will be about $8,000 or $9,000 more expensive without it.
The subsidy has been critical for small installers whose customers pay cash or take out loans and then claim the credit on their tax returns.
For panels that are owned by a third party, such as a bank, and leased to homeowners, system owners are able to claim a separate tax credit that the House bill would leave in place until 2032 but start to phase out in 2029.
That market is dominated by large players like Sunrun.
“You want to just place a larger burden on the regular Joe who pays taxes? It doesn’t seem fair,” said Jack Ramsey, CEO of Altsys Solar in Tulare, California.
Ramsey anticipates cutting his nine-person staff to four or five people if the credit is eliminated.
At the end of 2024, the US boasted 36 gigawatts of residential solar capacity, up from 3 GW in 2014 and a level equivalent to a third of the nation’s nuclear power capacity.
Rooftop solar accounts for more than a third of solar industry jobs, according to the Interstate Renewable Energy Council.
Rob Kaercher, CEO of Absolute Solar in Lansing, Michigan, has 24 employees and wants to hire more, but will not if the credit goes away.
“I strongly urge the credits to be maintained, because it would do a tremendous amount for local businesses just like ours to be able to continue to hire and grow,” Kaercher told reporters.
The move to eliminate the credit caught many in the industry off guard.
Thomas Clark, the director of marketing and communications of Northstone Solar in Whitefish, Montana, met with staff from his state’s Congressional delegation in Washington earlier this year and came away from the meeting feeling the credit was safe.
“Obviously this happening so quickly after those meetings really hurts as a constituent,” Clark said.
Macron calls for peace in first talk with new pope
PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday he had called Pope Leo XIV and talked about efforts to reach peace in Ukraine and Gaza in his first conversation with the new pontiff.
In their “first exchange,” the pair “addressed the efforts to let the weapons fall silent wherever conflicts rage in the world, and in particular for a solid and lasting peace in Ukraine and Gaza,” Macron said on X.
“We share the ambition to reconcile the fight against poverty and the protection of the planet,” the French leader said, adding that he had “once again congratulated” the pontiff on his election as head of the Catholic Church last week.
While Macron is not scheduled to join the ranks of the world leaders attending Pope Leo’s inaugural mass in Rome on Sunday morning, France’s Prime Minister Francois Bayrou is due to attend.
Nigeria army head vows to counter jihadist attacks
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria: Nigeria’s top military officer on Thursday told troops in a region battling increased jihadist unrest that the attacks would be quickly resolved.
The Islamic State West Africa Province group and its rival Boko Haram have intensified assaults on military bases in recent weeks, notably in the northeastern state of Borno, epicenter of an insurgency dating back to 2009.
According to an AFP tally, at least 10 bases have been attacked in two months. At least 100 people, including civilians, were killed in attacks in April.
“Actions have been taken to ensure that we address the series of attacks,” chief of defense staff General Christopher Musa told troops in Borno’s capital Maiduguri, promising new material was being drafted in.
Musa said conflict in the Sahel states including Mali, Chad and Niger “has put a lot of pressure on Nigeria and that’s why you see recent attacks have occurred.”
“Whatever is going on is just for a short while,” he said.
Musa suggested fencing Nigeria’s borders, saying “there are countries that have fenced over a 1,500 kilometer (930 mile) stretch” — roughly the length of the Nigeria-Niger frontier.
While violence has fallen from its 2014-2015 peak, the governor of Borno recently warned that the military was losing ground to jihadists, and the latest attacks have put the conflict back in the spotlight.
More than 40,000 people have been killed and two million displaced in northeast Nigeria since 2009, according to the United Nations.
A Multinational Joint Task Force, a coalition created by Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Benin and Chad to fight cross-border armed groups, has been hampered by the withdrawal of Niger and threats by Chad to do the same.
According to a recent Nigerian intelligence report seen by AFP, there are also internal problems.
Late payment of salaries “has been a recurring problem,” particularly in the northeast, it said.
The report warned of “frustration and demotivation among security personnel, which could potentially lead to mutinies or unrest, if not urgently addressed.”
President Bola Tinubu this week called for the creation of a “forest guards” unit “to flush out terrorists and criminal gangs.”
Nigeria’s vast, often inaccessible forests have become havens for jihadist and armed criminal groups.
While the Nigerian army often works with local self-defense groups, questions remain over how the proposed forest guard be financed, work with existing security forces and even how long it would take to set up.
13 hurt when car plows into crowd before Spanish football match
- Police ruled case as an accident, described all injuries as "minor"
- Driver arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving and causing injury
BARCELONA: At least 13 people were hurt when a driver lost control and plowed into a crowd gathered outside a football match between RCD Espanyol and city rivals FC Barcelona, police said on Thursday.
Police said people were hurt when the vehicle rammed into the crowd outside RCD Españyol soccer stadium in Barcelona at the start of the game.
Police added in a statement on social media site X that the incident did not present any danger to the crowd inside the stadium.
Salvador Illa, the Catalan regional president, said on Thursday all the injuries were “minor” and ruled out any deliberate attack.
The driver has been arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving and causing injury.
