Jewish observers begin celebrating the Festival of Lights Hanukkah on Wednesday at sunset.
Tradition connects Hanukkah with the Jewish uprising in 167 B.C. against the Syrian king Antiochus IV, who wanted to force the Jews to join the ancient Greek polytheism. After the invaders were expelled from Israel and Jerusalem was taken, the Jews rebuilt their desecrated and partially destroyed temple. On the day of its consecration, the main temple lamp, the menorah, was to be lit, and its fire was to be kept burning constantly. But there was very little oil for the lamp, and according to Jewish tradition, it took eight days to make a new one. When the menorah was lit with the oil they found, the fire burned without interruption for eight days while the new oil was being prepared.
To commemorate this, Hanukkah is celebrated for eight days, with one new candle lit every night in a special eight-candle candlestick.
Hanukkah celebrations will last eight days and end at nightfall on January 2.
In 2024, Ukrposhta JSC increased the number of international shipments by 41% compared to 2023 – up to 36 million export and import shipments (excluding simple letters and letters without tracking numbers, which are sent by simple procedure without tracking – IF-U), said Yulia Pavlenko, Director of the International Operations Department of Ukrposhta JSC, in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
“In 2024, we will reach a figure of about 36 million export and import shipments (excluding simple letters and letters without tracking numbers, which are sent in a simple way without tracking – IF-U). This performance indicator was recorded as of December 17, 2024. In 2023, it amounted to 25.5 million tracked items,” Pavlenko said.
According to her, imports prevail: since the beginning of 2024, 32 million parcels have been delivered to Ukraine. These are mainly goods from foreign marketplaces, in particular, from China, which Ukrainians can buy cheaper than in Ukraine.
“There are fewer exports, but, of course, they are more valuable for us, as we are selling goods made by Ukrainian producers on the foreign market. These are mostly handmade goods,” Pavlenko said.
According to her, Ukrposhta continues to develop educational programs for small and medium-sized businesses that want to sell products on foreign marketplaces. In particular, the UA Etsy Global Start program, implemented in partnership with USAID, is nearing completion, under which the foundation provides a $500,000 grant for the best start-up entrepreneurs on Etsy. The program received 1.8 thousand applications from Ukrainian entrepreneurs who opened an Etsy store after October 2023. 500 winners were selected and given the opportunity to take a training course and receive $1100 in start-up assistance for their first promotions.
At the same time, a program for SMEs was implemented with the United Nations Development Program Fund with financial support from the Government of Japan. As part of it, training for small exporters at the Sustainable Business Academy was free of charge for entrepreneurs.
The Director of the International Operations Department at Ukrposhta said that Ukraine is now the ninth largest country in terms of sales on the largest handmade platform in the United States alone. Already 38 thousand Ukrainians have opened their own stores on Etsy.
In 11 months of 2024, Ukraine reduced imports of lead and lead products by 30.4% to $1,198 thousand.
Lead exports also decreased by 23.1% to $10.818 million. In November, lead imports amounted to $421 thousand, while exports amounted to $1.038 million.
The main use of lead is currently in the production of lead-acid batteries for the automotive industry. In addition, lead is used to make bullets and some alloys.
Ukraine’s third largest mobile operator lifecell will expand its fleet of rechargeable batteries at its base stations to 33 thousand, increasing their battery life to 10 hours, said Datagroup-Volia-lifecell (DVL) CEO Mykhailo Shelemba.
“The first batch of 6 thousand new batteries for lifecell base stations arrived at our warehouses yesterday. We plan to receive 6-7 thousand batteries every week, which is enough to power 1.2-1.3 thousand base stations for 10 hours. We will receive the full order of almost 33 thousand batteries in January and install them at base stations across the country as soon as possible,” Shelemba wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
According to him, the operator’s network already has 15 thousand lithium batteries, which allows it to operate autonomously for 4-6 hours during power outages.
The installation of an additional 33 thousand batteries will allow the network to operate autonomously for more than 10 hours.
“In addition to the batteries, more powerful uninterruptible power supplies for fast charging, new climate cabinets for the safe use of batteries and equipment have been purchased and installed,” Shelemba said, adding that one fifth of the equipment is powered by stationary and mobile generators.
Earlier it was reported that Datagroup-Volia-lifecell (DVL), a provider of fixed-line and mobile services, has developed a three-year network development plan that will increase the coverage and capacity of the lifecell network. The company has an ambitious development plan for lifecell and is making efforts to increase the operator’s energy resilience.
It was also reported that in September 2024, NJJ Holding, led by French investor Xavier Niel, completed the acquisition of Datagroup-Volia, a national provider of fixed-line Internet access services, and lifecell, the third largest mobile operator. The assets were merged into DVL Group. As of the end of the third quarter of 2024, lifecell served 9.9 million subscribers.
American electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla plans to complete the construction of a plant in Shanghai to produce Megapack energy storage devices by the end of this year, Xinhua news agency reported, citing a statement from the company’s local office.
Construction of the plant began in late May. The plant covers an area of about 200 thousand square meters, and the total investment in this project is estimated at about 1.45 billion yuan ($202 million).
The facility will be Tesla’s first energy storage project outside the United States and the company’s second plant in Shanghai after the electric vehicle gigafactory, with total investments exceeding 50 billion yuan.
Mass production of Megapack at the new facility is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2025. At the initial stage, the production volume will be 10 thousand drives per year, which is equivalent to approximately 40 GWh of electricity.
Megapack is a 3.9 MWh battery for energy storage and power supply support, its use contributes to the stability of power grids and prevents interruptions in their operation, according to Tesla’s website. The American company already has a Megapack production plant in California with a capacity of 10 thousand units per year.
Since the beginning of the year, Ukrainian agricultural producers have received assistance in the amount of UAH 1.98 billion with the support of the World Bank, the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food reported.
According to the report, 27,614 farms and other agricultural producers received assistance.
It is specified that 10447 farmers received a budget subsidy per 1 hectare for agricultural activities totaling more than UAH 1.15 billion, 15,252 received a subsidy for the maintenance of cattle (cows) of all productivity areas in the amount of more than UAH 620 million, 1915 received a special budget subsidy for the maintenance of breeding stock of goats and/or sheep in the amount of more than UAH 207 million.
The Ministry of Agrarian Policy promised to continue implementing state programs to support farmers in 2025.
