One dead, nine wounded in Russian strikes on Ukraine’s Kherson

One dead, nine wounded in Russian strikes on Ukraine’s Kherson
Russian glide bombs and artillery struck a city in southern Ukraine on Wednesday, killing one person and wounding nine others as Moscow forces continued daily attacks across the country. (X/@UkrReview)
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Updated 16 April 2025
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One dead, nine wounded in Russian strikes on Ukraine’s Kherson

One dead, nine wounded in Russian strikes on Ukraine’s Kherson
  • The attack damaged a sports facility, a supermarket, residential buildings and civilian vehicles, Prokudin added
  • The strike on Kherson followed other deadly attacks in recent days

KYIV: Russian glide bombs and artillery struck a city in southern Ukraine on Wednesday, killing one person and wounding nine others as Moscow forces continued daily attacks across the country.
The city of Kherson was struck with glide bombs on Wednesday morning, and when rescue teams arrived at the scene, Russian forces launched an artillery barrage, said the region’s head, Oleksandr Prokudin. “This is a deliberate tactic by Russia to hinder the rescue of the injured and harm doctors, rescuers, and police,” he said.
The attack damaged a sports facility, a supermarket, residential buildings and civilian vehicles, Prokudin added.

The strike on Kherson followed other deadly attacks in recent days. On Palm Sunday, two Russian ballistic missile hit the northeastern city of Sumy near the Russian border, killing 35 people and injuring more than 100 others in the deadliest attack on Ukrainian civilians this year. The Russian military said that the strike targeted a gathering of senior military officers, but did not offer evidence.
In Sumy on Wednesday, mourners buried 11-year old Maksym Martynenko — one of two children killed in the attack — and his parents Nataliia and Mykola. Their three caskets were open for final farewells at a church in the city center before the bodies were taken to the family’s village for burial in the same plot.
“I can’t believe that one family, just like that, one day … just went away, just like that,” said Daria Doroshenko, Maksym’s school teacher.
Pastor Artem Tovmasian, a friend of the family, said at the service that their deaths were a tragedy that “should be condemned in a real way.” He said the international community’s reaction should not be just “words of condolence,” but action.
The attack on Sumy and other areas came even as Moscow and Kyiv both agreed last month to implement a 30-day halt on strikes on energy facilities. Both parties have differed on the start time for stopping strikes and alleged daily breaches by the other side.
The Russian military said it downed 26 Ukrainian drones over several Russian regions early Wednesday.
Asked Wednesday if Russia is going to stop abiding by the limited ceasefire after 30 days, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov demurred, saying the decision will be made later.
Moscow has effectively refused to accept a comprehensive ceasefire that President Donald Trump has sought and Ukraine has endorsed. Russian President Vladimir Putin has made it conditional on a halt in Ukraine’s mobilization efforts and Western arms supplies, the demands rejected by Ukraine. Kyiv believes Moscow’s forces are gearing up for a fresh offensive.
Russian forces hold the battlefield advantage in Ukraine, pressing attacks in several sectors of the 1,000-kilometer (over 600-mile) frontline, and Kyiv has warned Moscow is planning a new offensive to improve its negotiating position.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Paris on Thursday for “talks with European counterparts to advance President Trump’s goal to end the Russia-Ukraine war and stop the bloodshed.”
Rubio will also “discuss ways to advance shared interests in the region,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement.
Wikoff, who visited Russia on Friday for his third meeting with Putin that lasted nearly five hours, told Fox News earlier this week that the Russian leader wants a “permanent peace,” noting that a prospective peace deal would focus on Russian claims for five Ukrainian regions.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized Witkoff’s comment, emphasizing that Ukraine will never recognize any temporarily occupied territories as Russian.
Commenting on ongoing negotiations with the US over a prospective agreement that would give the US access to Ukraine’s valuable mineral resources, Ukraine’s Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko said the US and Ukrainian teams have achieved “significant progress.”
She said that both sides are working on a “memorandum of intent” that would reflect positive developments in the talks, adding that “we are preparing to complete the formalization of the agreement in the near future.”
The deal, which needs to be ratified by the Ukrainian parliament, “will provide opportunities for investment and development in Ukraine, and will also provide conditions for tangible economic growth for both Ukraine and the United States,” Svyrydenko said.
In Russia, the authorities on Wednesday arrested Alexei Smirnov, former governor of the Kursk region on the border with Ukraine, where Kyiv’s forces still hold onto a patch of land after a surprise incursion in August 2024.
Smirnov, who served as the Kursk governor in May-December 2024, his former deputy, three other officials and contractors in the region have been accused of fraud and embezzling the money allocated for building fortifications on the border with Ukraine.
If convicted, Smirnov is facing up to 10 years in prison.
Kyiv’s forces pushed into Kursk on Aug. 6, 2024, in a surprise attack, overwhelming lightly armed Russian border guards and a few infantry units. Russian forces have since driven Ukrainian troops out of Sudzha, the biggest town they have held since the incursion, and some of the other areas, but Kyiv’s forces still hold onto a patch of land there.


Coinbase warns of up to $400 million hit from cyberattack

Coinbase warns of up to $400 million hit from cyberattack
Updated 5 sec ago
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Coinbase warns of up to $400 million hit from cyberattack

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

Republican House bill would jack up cost of US solar home systems, PV panel makers warn
Updated 42 min 25 sec ago
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Republican House bill would jack up cost of US solar home systems, PV panel makers warn

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

Macron calls for peace in first talk with new pope
Updated 16 May 2025
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Macron calls for peace in first talk with new pope

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

Nigeria army head vows to counter jihadist attacks
Updated 16 May 2025
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Nigeria army head vows to counter jihadist attacks

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

13 hurt when car plows into crowd before Spanish football match
Updated 52 min 1 sec ago
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13 hurt when car plows into crowd before Spanish football match

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.