Crypto News: A boost for Putin in Ukraine

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Tensions at the top in Ukraine are spilling into public view, just as delays in weapons deliveries from Kyiv's allies are being felt at the front.

It's great news for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Army chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi — feted for victories that pushed Russia back in late 2022 — refused to step down at a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who wants to shake up the military leadership after the failure of last year's counteroffensive.

That's all playing out as the 27-member European Union leaders today finally overcame a veto by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on more than €50 billion ($54 billion) in aid to Ukraine at a summit. Some $60 billion in US funding for Ukraine has been deadlocked in political disputes in Washington for months.

Growing shortages of munitions, particularly artillery shells, mean Russian forces now have three times as much firepower on the battlefield each day, Kyiv warned the EU this week.

Zaluzhnyi said late last year the war had reached a stalemate (though he later walked that back). Zelenskiy disagreed with that assessment and has pushed for a bolder approach, people familiar with the military leadership say.

Neither of those viewpoints will hold true unless the flow of arms from Ukraine's allies resumes quickly. Russia has ramped up its own defense production.

The risk for Ukraine is that splits between the military and political leadership may sow doubts in the US and Europe about the clarity of its intended war strategy this year.

That would add to existing strains in rallying support to help Kyiv repel Russia's invasion.

The war passes two years this month as Putin seeks a new term in March presidential elections.

For now, at least, he's entitled to believe that most things are going his way.— Anthony Halpin

Zaluzhnyi, left, and Zelenskiy. Source: Ukrainian Presidency/Getty Images

Negotiations on a deal to pause the Israel-Hamas war and free civilian hostages captured by Hamas are advancing, sources say. While the talks are still in the early stages, the proposal — which would amount to the longest truce and the biggest hostage release since the conflict began Oct. 7 — has a realistic chance of success and could lead to a longer-term cease-fire.

An Israeli bombardment in southern Gaza on Monday. Photographer: AFP/Getty Images

Donald Trump's legal troubles have siphoned off $51.2 million from his White House comeback effort in the past year. While the former US president has made the charges the center of his fundraising campaign, his political action committee is having to spend a significant amount of money to defend him.

The Pentagon added China's leading memory chipmaker and prominent players in AI, energy and automobiles to a list of companies it accuses of aiding the Asian nation's military. Washington already sanctions major telecom and aerospace players as well as Huawei and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. — firms at the heart of Beijing's bid to replace American technology.

It will take more than three centuries for Black Americans to achieve the same quality of life as their White neighbors, McKinsey & Co. said in a report, after the racial gap widened in more than half the country in the past decade. Even in cities such as New York and San Francisco, where outcomes overall are better for Black residents, parity would take 160 years.

India's government will increase infrastructure spending, and boost housing and other services, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her final budget speech before elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration is benefiting from surging tax revenue, allowing it to continue spending ahead of the vote. Sitharaman vowed support for sectors targeted by Modi in the elections — farmers, young people, women and the poor.

The chief minister of India's Jharkand state and leader in the opposition coalition, Hemant Soren, was arrested yesterday in a case of alleged fraud.

The US launched two strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen and intercepted a missile fired by the Iran-backed group, as the fallout from the Israel-Hamas war continues to roil the region.

Farmers brought dozens of tractors to Brussels near EU institutions in a demonstration aimed at the bloc's leaders meeting nearby for a summit, protesting what they say is unfair competition from abroad, subsidy cuts and regulation.

President Joe Biden selected John Podesta, a prominent figure in Democratic Party politics for decades, to replace former Secretary of State John Kerry as the top US diplomat for climate. Podesta may present a somewhat less polarizing figure than Kerry, a onetime Democratic presidential nominee and a frequent target of conservatives as the environment remains a very political issue.

Trump and other Republican presidential candidates spent months denouncing Biden's environmental agenda while championing fossil fuels. Outside the US, populist leaders like Geert Wilders in the Netherlands and Argentine President Javier Milei have dismissed alarm about global warming.

At the same time, sales of electric vehicles have slowed in the US and other countries. The wind energy industry had a rough year in 2023 because of supply chain problems, inflation and higher costs, though it has shown signs of recovery. Although Kerry operated out of the State Department, Podesta, who became involved in politics as a college student when he joined Senator Eugene McCarthy's presidential campaign, will remain in the White House, where he has been Biden's clean energy adviser.

One thing to watch today: Biden along with congressional leaders of both parties will attend the National Prayer Breakfast at the Capitol.

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The EU has been a world leader for climate policy, but European Parliament elections this June have a chance of slowing the green transition. While the legislature has pushed through some of the world's most aggressive decarbonization plans — including the EU's 55% emissions-reduction target for 2030 — there are signs that voters are leaning toward candidates representing the more climate-skeptic right.

Dozens of British wind farms run by some of Europe's largest energy companies have routinely overestimated how much power they'll produce, adding millions of pounds a year to electricity bills, according to market records and interviews with power traders. On blustery days, too much power risks overloading Britain's outdated electricity network and the grid operator must respond by paying firms not to generate. In effect, some wind farms are paid not to generate energy that they wouldn't have produced anyway.

Wind turbines near the town of Rushton. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

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