US investment company Brookfield Asset Management will invest up to SEK 95 billion ($9.87 billion) in an artificial intelligence data center in Strängnäs, Sweden, near Stockholm, according to a company statement.
The facility will be located on a site covering approximately 3.77 million square feet (350,000 square meters). Construction will take 10-15 years.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson welcomed Brookfield’s plans, writing on social media that the data center will be one of the largest of its kind in Europe.
In February, it was announced that Brookfield plans to invest €20 billion in the construction of data centers and the development of AI infrastructure in France over the next five years.
Who received the largest fine for riding a scooter last year?
According to the court registry search engine “Babushka,” 71 court cases involving electric scooters were recorded in 2024. Such violations are usually punishable by fines ranging from 340 to 34,000 hryvnia and sometimes by the revocation of driving privileges. The largest fine was imposed on a man who was driving an electric scooter while intoxicated in Odesa.
Last year, 71 offenses involving electric scooter enthusiasts were recorded in Babushka. Over the course of the year, such cases increased by 42%. Already this year, the court registry has recorded at least 17 such cases.
Scooter drivers usually appear in administrative offenses. For example, this year, 13 administrative and 4 criminal cases have been recorded. For comparison, last year there were 64 administrative and 7 criminal cases, respectively.
The maximum fine for drunk driving was imposed on an electric scooter driver in Odesa in June 2024. It turned out that the man did not have a driver’s license and was not riding a scooter while drunk for the first time. The court fined him 34,000 hryvnias and ordered him to pay court costs. It should be noted that if the defendant had a driver’s license, he would have been deprived of his driving privileges for such a violation.
Another 17 people have been fined 17,000 hryvnia over the past two years. Fifteen of them were driving a scooter while intoxicated, and two were under the influence of drugs. Three people were banned from driving for a year.
Since 2023, all electric scooters (monowheels, Segways, etc.) have been recognized as vehicles, which has allowed the police and courts to hold electric scooter drivers administratively liable on the same basis as car drivers. However, there are still no specific rules and responsibilities for electric scooter drivers. This conflict could be resolved by draft laws 3023 of 2020 and 10441 of 2024, which have been pending in the Verkhovna Rada for a long time, according to Mykola Polyukhovych, a member of the traffic safety council of the NGO U-Cycle (Kyiv Cyclists Association).
“Electric scooter drivers are not allowed to ride on sidewalks, and there is currently no bicycle infrastructure for them, which can only be used by cyclists, which would be appropriate given the similarity of their characteristics. Therefore, scooter riders must ride exclusively on the roadway, following the traffic rules on a general basis, for violation of which they are held liable — after all, a vehicle equipped with an electric motor is a source of increased danger to other road users. “Given the almost unrestricted access to electric scooters, as well as the growing number of cases of such drivers being held liable by the police and courts, this issue needs to be regulated by law,” comments Mykola Polyukhovych.
Source: https://opendatabot.ua/analytics/electroscooters-courts-2024
The income of Ukrainian publishers in 2024 increased by 31% compared to 2023, according to a report by the Ukrainian Book Institute (UBI).
“The annual report ‘Indicators of the Book Industry in Ukraine-2024’ was presented, during which the Ukrainian Book Institute presented the main indicators of the book industry for 2024, along with proposals for the development of the ‘Books on the Market’ catalog as a monitoring tool,” the report said.
The UIC notes that last year, Ukrainian book publishing showed signs of recovery: publishers’ revenues grew by 31% compared to 2023, and the total annual circulation increased by 21%; the Ukrainian book market saw a 31% increase in revenues and 33 million copies sold per year.
“There are over 350 publishing houses operating in Ukraine. Books can be purchased in almost 800 offline bookstores and 80 online stores. The total market volume is estimated at UAH 8 billion, which is about $200 million,” the report said.
According to the UIC, in 2024, 15,601 thousand book titles were published with a total circulation of 33.315 million copies.
The turnover of retail trade in Ukraine in January-March 2025 increased by 5.1% compared to the same period in 2024, according to the State Statistics Service (Derzhstat).
According to its data, in nominal terms, retail trade turnover in January-March of this year amounted to UAH 577.932 billion.
Retail trade turnover in March compared to February of this year increased by 11.5%, and in annual terms compared to March 2024, by 5.3%.
Derzhstat specifies that the turnover of retail trade enterprises (legal entities) in the first quarter of 2025 compared to January-March 2024 increased by 4.8% and amounted to UAH 400.757 billion.
At the same time, in March compared to February this year, the retail turnover of enterprises increased by 11.6%, and by March 2024 – by 4.9%.
According to the statistics office, Ukraine’s retail trade turnover in 2024 grew by 11.5%, amounting to UAH 2.172 trillion in nominal terms.
The State Statistics Service reminds that the data does not include the territories temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation and parts of the territories where hostilities are (were) ongoing.
The State Legal Service has issued the first permit for the import of medical cannabis into Ukraine.
According to the State Legal Service’s website, the permit was issued for a substance that is registered in Ukraine and included in the State Register of Medicinal Products of Ukraine.
The State Legal Service did not specify who was granted the permit.
The Vitagro group of companies plans to begin the first phase of construction work on the new ABC Hub industrial park in the Khmelnytskyi region in the second half of 2025, with production lines expected to be launched by the end of 2028, according to a press release from Vitagro.
According to the group’s press release, the 11-hectare IP will house enterprises for the processing of agricultural raw materials, food production, packaging, as well as warehousing complexes, research centers, laboratories, logistics infrastructure, and commercial facilities.
As reported, the Ukrainian government registered the ABC Hub industrial park at a meeting on Wednesday, and the initiative to create the park came from the private manufacturing and commercial enterprise Budzalizobeton, which is part of the Vitagro group of companies.
The group reports that the total investment in the project is estimated at UAH 1.65 billion.
“At the first stage, the Vitagro group will invest UAH 127 million of its own funds in preparatory and land works, design, connection to networks, and infrastructure preparation of the territory. In the future, Vitagro plans to invest about $35 million in ABC Hub,” the press release says.
As reported, the initiator or managing company of the IP may receive up to UAH 150 million in co-financing from the state for the construction of engineering and transport infrastructure.
According to project estimates, at least 350 new jobs will be created at the park, about 300 of which will be production personnel and the rest administrative.
“Salaries are planned to be 30-45% higher than the regional average,” the press release states.
The group expects a significant economic effect – ABC Hub’s gross domestic product will range from UAH 6.9 billion in 2027 to UAH 13.7 billion in 2033.
“Thanks to this, more than UAH 13 million will be transferred to local budgets each year in the form of personal income tax, a single social contribution, and a military levy,” the group’s press service said.
Founded in 1998, the Vitagro group of companies is one of the largest industrial groups in Ukraine with assets in the agricultural, energy, processing, construction, and chemical industries. It owns enterprises in the Khmelnytskyi, Rivne, Volyn, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Kyiv regions. It cultivates about 90,000 hectares of land and is also engaged in livestock breeding, horticulture, renewable energy, fertilizer and feed production, construction, and the production of building materials.
During the full-scale invasion, the group built and launched five processing plants. Vitagro’s head office is located in Khmelnytskyi.
According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs, the ultimate beneficiary of the investment company Vitagro is People’s Deputy Serhiy Labazuk (parliamentary faction “For the Future”).
