Ukraine will block Russian gas supplies via its territory in several days, effectively halting its transit to Slovakia, Moldova and, to some extent, Hungary. Kyiv said it would not renew an agreement on Russian gas transit expiring on December 31 as Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted last week Kyiv would not let Moscow “earn additional billions on our blood”. – Strong dependence – Russian gas accounted for less than 10 percent of the European Union’s gas imports in 2023. In 2021, a year before the invasion started, it made up over 40 percent. But eastern European EU members still depend largely on Russian gas for geographical and political reasons. EU and NATO members Hungary and Slovakia have maintained close ties with the Kremlin despite the invasion. Russia has been delivering gas to Europe by two routes since a series of underwater explosions in 2022 damaged the Nord Stream pipeline that carried gas to northern Germany via the Baltic Sea. The TurkStream pipeline under the Black Sea and its mainland extension Balkan Stream supply Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary. Supplies via Ukraine are based on a five-year contract signed by Ukraine’s Naftogaz and GTSOU pipeline operator with Russian giant Gazprom in 2019, which will now expire. Official data put gas volume transported by this route in 2023 at 14.65 billion cubic metres, slightly less than half of all Russian gas flowing into Europe. – Slovakia on the front line – Austria, which still bought 90 percent of its gas from Russia last summer, terminated its deal with Gazprom in December after six decades. “Austria has solved it by quasi cancelling the Russian contract, citing its past non-performance,” Andras Deak, an energy security expert at Ludovika University in Budapest, told AFP. Neighbouring Slovakia is “sticking to the long-term contract, which, if the Ukrainians cut off transit, will not be... fulfilled,” he added. Slovakia’s nationalist-leaning Prime Minister Robert Fico visited Moscow last weekend to discuss supplies, following a spat with Zelensky at an EU summit in Brussels. Zelensky then said Fico “wants to help Putin earn money to fund the war”. Besides geopolitical reasons, Bratislava prefers to import Russian gas “because it is cheaper”, said Alexander Duleba from the Slovak Foreign Policy Association. He said Gazprom paid for gas transit through Ukraine, but if Slovakia bought gas from other suppliers, it would have to pay for transit itself. SPP, a company supplying gas to 1.5 million Slovak households, said it could find other suppliers. But “any other alternative will be significantly more expensive”, its spokesman Ondrej Sebesta told AFP. He put the extra cost at 150 million euros ($156 million), mainly in transit fees. – Moldova on alert – Moldova is already bracing for energy cuts despite taking steps to diversify supplies. The former Soviet republic gets 70 percent of its electricity from the Cuciurgan power station based in the separatist region of Transnistria, which uses Russian gas imported via Ukraine. Moldova’s pro-European President Maia Sandu recently said that there are other transit routes bypassing Ukraine that Russia could use to deliver the gas. “But it seems that Gazprom is not ready to keep its contractual obligations,” she added. Sandu slammed the Kremlin’s “blackmail” possibly aimed at destabilising Moldova several months before a general election in 2025. Moldova, one of Europe’s poorest countries, declared a 60-day state of energy emergency in mid-December. It will have to buy power from neighbouring Romania and pay more. – Hungary almost safe – Unlike its neighbours, Hungary receives most Russian gas via TurkStream. It gets only a fragment via Ukraine and will not be hurt by Kyiv’s decision to block the supplies. But Prime Minister Viktor Orban said last week that “we don’t want to give up” this route because of the reasonable price. While Budapest leads talks with Kyiv and Moscow, Orban suggested his country might play a “trick” as it would buy Russian gas before it enters Ukraine. “Then what comes through Ukrainian territory will no longer be Russian gas, but Hungarian,” he added. Energy security expert Deak said that Hungary risks being “left as the last Gazprom client in the EU”. It will then face mounting “political pressure” from the EU to get rid of its energy dependence on Russia, he added.COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Amazon Web Services will invest another $10 billion to bolster its data center infrastructure in Ohio. The company and Republican Gov. Mike DeWine announced the plan Monday. The new investment will boost the amount it has committed to spending in Ohio by the end of 2029 to more than $23 billion. AWS launched its first data centers in the state in 2016 and currently operates campuses in two counties in central Ohio, home to the capital city of Columbus. The new investment will allow AWS to expand its data centers to new sites, but the company said those locations have not been determined yet and noted that its investment plans are contingent upon the execution of long-term energy service agreements. AWS said the new data centers will contain computer servers, storage drives, networking equipment and other forms of technology infrastructure used to power cloud computing, including artificial intelligence and machine learning. In June 2023, AWS said it would invest $7.8 billion by the end of 2029 to expand its data center operations in central Ohio. That was on top of $6 billion already invested through 2022. The Associated Press
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AstroPay Debuts Multicurrency Wallet for Cross-Border PaymentsApple's latest iPhones get the gift of more AI as holiday shopping season heats upBible-based lessons are now allowed in Texas elementary schools, and may be implemented in 2025. The Texas Board of Education voted 8 to 7 on Friday to allow the curriculum in the classrooms, NBC News reported . The article noted, “The curriculum adopted by the Texas State Board of Education, which is controlled by elected Republicans, is optional for schools to implement, but they will receive additional funding if they do so.” The NBC article continued: The Texas Education Agency, which oversees public education for students statewide, created its instruction materials after a law passed in 2023 by the GOP-controlled Legislature required the agency to do so. The lesson plans were publicly released this spring. Texas has over five million public school students, the Associated Press (AP) reported on Friday. The outlet said that Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) said the vote was “a critical step forward to bring students back to the basics of education and provide the best education in the nation.” The AP report also detailed some of the learning materials: In the newly approved kindergarten materials, one lesson on helping one’s neighbor instructs teachers to talk about the Golden Rule using lessons from the Bible. It also instructs the teachers to explain that the Bible is “a collection of ancient texts” and that its different parts are “the core books of the Jewish and Christian religions.” In a third-grade lesson about the first Thanksgiving, the material directs teachers to discuss how the governor of Plymouth said a prayer and gave a speech that included references to “several passages from the Christian Bible in the book of Psalms.” Teachers are then instructed to tell students the book of Psalms is a collection of songs, poems and hymns “that are used in both Jewish and Christian worship.” Oklahoma recently began requiring schools to teach the Bible, including the Ten Commandments, to students in grades 5 through 12, per Breitbart News. In his memo to all districts, Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters said: The Bible is one of the most historically significant books and a cornerstone of Western civilization, along with the Ten Commandments. They will be referenced as an appropriate study of history, civilization, ethics, comparative religion, or the like, as well as for their substantial influence on our nation’s founders and the foundational principles of our Constitution. This is not merely an educational directive but a crucial step in ensuring our students grasp the core values and historical context of our country. A federal judge in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, took aim at a state law mandating posters of the Ten Commandments be displayed in public school classrooms, saying on November 12 that it is “unconstitutional,” and ordering officials not to enforce it, AP reported. However, that decision will be appealed, the outlet continued. “Attorney General Elizabeth Murrill said she disagreed with the ruling and said her office would ask the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to quickly stay the ruling pending appeal.”