TikTok is no longer available to users in the U.S., the result of a controversial law that forces the popular platform to go offline unless it separates from its Chinese owner, ByteDance, npr.org reported.
“When users tried to open the app around 10:35 p.m. ET, a message appeared saying, ‘Sorry, TikTok is currently unavailable. A law banning TikTok has gone into effect in the United States. Unfortunately, this means you cannot use TikTok right now.”
The post goes on to say that newly elected President Donald Trump has promised to “work with us on a solution to restore TikTok as soon as he takes office. Please stay tuned! ”
Around the same time, TikTok also stopped appearing in the Apple and Google Play app stores. A law recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court ordered Apple and Google to remove the service from their app stores. It also ordered web hosting companies, including TikTok’s internal cloud provider, Oracle, to stop supporting the app. Otherwise, they will face penalties that could reach billions of dollars.
In 2024, Ukraine increased its exports of goods by 15% to $41.7 billion, while agricultural exports brought the country half of 50% of its export earnings of $20.9 billion, according to the review of Ukraine’s economy during the war, which is conducted monthly by the Center for Economic Strategies in cooperation with the German Economic Team (GET).
The analysts noted that the mining and metallurgical complex received $6.9 billion (17%) of export earnings in 2024, the food industry – $3.7 billion (9%), and machine building – $3.6 billion (9%). At the same time, sugar exports in 2024 reached 750 thousand tons and brought producers $420 million, the highest figure since 1997, when Ukraine started keeping statistics.
The top ten export products that brought Ukraine the highest foreign exchange earnings included sunflower oil and corn – $5.1 billion each, wheat – $3.7 billion, iron ore – $2.8 billion, steel and rolled products – $2, 4 billion, rapeseed – $1.8 billion, soybeans and meal – $1.3 billion each, wood and timber – $1.1 billion, poultry – $1 billion, furniture – $0.8 billion, steel pipes and barley – $0.6 billion each, and cast iron – $0.5 billion.
At the same time, total imports in 2024 grew by 11% to $70.7 billion, experts said.
According to their information, the main imported goods last year were oil and oil products – $6.8 billion (10%), cars – $4.4 billion (6%), pharmaceuticals – $2.0 billion (3%), mobile phones – $1.3 billion (2%), fertilizers – $1.2 billion (2%) and drones – $1.1 billion (2%).
Trypillia Packaging Plant (TPK, Ukrainka, Kyiv region), a subsidiary of Rubizhne Cardboard and Packaging Plant, which has stopped operations in Luhansk region, increased its corrugated packaging output by 13.3% in 2024 compared to 2023, to 165.2 million square meters.
According to statistics provided to Interfax-Ukraine by UkrPapir Association, by the end of the year the mill slowed down the growth rate of this indicator slightly compared to the same period in 2023: in 11 months it was 16.4%, and in ten months it was 20%.
At the same time, TPK steadily retains its second place in corrugated packaging production in Ukraine after Kyiv Cardboard and Paper Mill (228.3 million square meters).
According to the association, in December 2024, TPK reduced corrugated packaging production by 14% compared to December 2023, but increased by 6% compared to November 2024, to 12.8 million square meters.
In monetary terms, TUC’s production increased by almost 10% last year to UAH 2 billion 726 million.
As reported, the main enterprises of the industry, which provided data to Ukrpapir Association, increased the production of cardboard boxes by 12.3% in 2024 to 590.1 million square meters, but compared to the pre-war year 2021, their production decreased by 21.8%.
Earlier it was reported that before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Rubizhne Cardboard Processing Plant, together with TPK, was the leading corrugated packaging producer in Ukraine.
After the destruction in Rubizhne, the plant shut down, and the legal entity Rubizhne CPP was re-registered in Kyiv.
TPK produces a wide range of corrugated cardboard products for food, industrial goods, and chemicals. Among its customers are Roshen, Coca-Cola, MHP agricultural holding, and Lactalis Group.
In 2023, the plant increased its commercial output by 13.7% compared to 2022, to UAH 2 billion 480 million, while corrugated packaging production increased by 18%, to 145.8 million square meters.
Jarek Neverovic, former Lithuanian energy minister and chief advisor to the Lithuanian president on environment and infrastructure issues, has become chairman of the supervisory board of Energoatom, a source in the government told the Energoreforma Internet portal. Neverovic is an independent member of Energoatom’s National Assembly, which was formed back in June 2024, but has not been fully operational until now.
He has held various positions in his country’s government related to the operation of the electricity transmission system, management of investment funds and cooperation with national and multinational corporations.
According to Forbes.ua, citing its sources in Enerhoatom, another independent member of the National Assembly, Timothy Stone, refused to sign a contract, but is considering being an advisor.
As reported, Stone has experience as an independent director of the British Horizon Nuclear Power, a non-executive director of the European Investment Bank and heads the UK Nuclear Industry Association (NIA).
Prior to that, the fact that the supervisory board of Energoatom on Friday, January 17, elects its chairman and will begin full work, Energy Minister German Galushchenko said.
“The issue of corruption, I think, will be solved….. Today the chairman of the supervisory board (“Energoatom” – ER) is already being fully elected. Accordingly, there will be a functioning supervisory board that will monitor all decisions that will be made. From the point of view of corporate governance, I think this is the best way out,” he said during the ‘Hour of questions to the government’, which is broadcast by MP Oleksiy Honcharenko (European Solidarity faction).
The Cabinet of Ministers approved Timothy Stone (Timothy John Stone), Michael E. Kirst and Jarek Neverovic as independent members of the supervisory board of Energoatom by order No. 566 of June 21, 2024, and Timofey Milovanov and Vitaliy Petruk as representatives of the state.
Since then, the Supervisory Board has not fully started its work. Interfax-Ukraine sources specified that the independent members were not satisfied with the amount of remuneration.
The Cabinet of Ministers approved the terms of contracts with members of the NAEK’s supervisory board by Order No. 1224 of November 26, 2024, without disclosing details.
In December of the same year, First Deputy Economy Minister Oleksiy Sobolev said that the government was waiting for a position on the contracts and readiness to continue work from the independent members of Energoatom’s supervisory board, whose first meeting has been open since July 17. According to him, the proposed conditions are in line with salaries in other major Ukrainian energy companies.
In early January 2025, Ukrainian MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak (Golos faction) suggested that international partners should be involved in the discussion of the disruption of the NAEK Energoatom supervisory board.
The EU ambassador to Ukraine, Katarina Maternova, said in a reply to a letter of inquiry from the Interfax-Ukraine news agency on 14 January that the G7 ambassadors had urged Prime Minister Denys Shmygal to ensure the work of the supervisory board of the NAEK Enerhoatom as soon as possible. According to her, having a full-fledged council will be important for discussing significant new investments.
A small wet snow is expected on Sunday, January 19, in the east, at night and in the south-east of Ukraine, in the rest of the territory without precipitation.
According to Ukrhydrometcenter, at night and in the morning in the western regions in some places fog, on the roads icy. The wind is north-western, 7-12 m/s.
The temperature at night from 2° warm to 3° frost, in the Carpathians 2-7° frost; in the afternoon 1-6° warm, in the eastern and Sumy regions about 0°.
In Kiev on January 19 without precipitation. The wind is north-westerly, 7-12 m/s. The temperature at night is about 0°, during the day 3-5° warm.
According to the Central Geophysical Observatory named after Boris Sreznevsky, in Kiev for all the time of meteorological observations, the highest temperature on January 19 was 9.8 ° in 2007, the lowest -23.0 ° in 1942.
On Monday, January 20, in Ukraine without precipitation. At night in the western regions on the roads in places icy. The wind is north-western with a transition to southeastern, 5-10 m/s.
The temperature at night from 2° warm to 3° frost, on the Left Bank up to 5° frost; during the day 1-6° warm, in Transcarpathia, Prykarpattya and the south of the country up to 10°.
In Kiev on January 20, the wind is northwest with a transition to southeast, 5-10 m/s. The temperature at night is about 0° warm, during the day 3-5° warm.
The U.S. Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has approved a loan of up to $40 million for Astarta, Ukraine’s largest sugar producer, at the sub-council level.
“(The loan) will assist in the construction and operation of a soy protein processing plant with a projected annual capacity of about 100,000 tons and help Astarta make other investments,” DFC said on its website.
At the same time, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group announced at the end of November 2024 that it was considering a $40 million loan to Astarta and a parallel $40 million loan for the construction of a soy protein concentrate plant in Poltava region. The recipient of the funds is Astarta Agro Protein LLC, a subsidiary of Astarta Holding plc.
It was noted that IFC has already assisted the agricultural holding in conducting market research, preparing a business plan for the project, and assessing its commercial viability in order to interact with potential investors.
Initially, the IFC Board of Directors planned to consider this project on December 20, but then postponed it to February 28, 2025.
As reported, in 2024, Astarta began investing in the construction of a plant for processing soybean meal into soy protein concentrate with a capacity of 500 tons per day (about 100 thousand tons per year) in the Globinsky Industrial Complex (Poltava region). The agricultural holding will invest over EUR 76 million in equipment and technology and create 110 new jobs.
“Astarta and its structural unit Astarta Agro Protein signed the first investment agreement with the Ukrainian government to receive compensation from the state for significant investments. As part of the agreement, the government will provide the agricultural holding with a number of incentives, including exemptions from import duties on new equipment, import VAT on new equipment and income tax for up to 5 years.
IFC recalled that Astarta commissioned a soybean processing plant in Globyno in December 2013. In 2023, it processed 232 thousand tons of soybeans, 73% of which were grown by the agricultural holding, and produced 172 thousand tons of soybean meal. In the first half of 2024, the share of the plant’s own raw materials increased to 90%.
Soybean concentrate is produced by processing soybean meal with higher added value. It serves as a raw material for the production of animal feed.
In 2023, the agricultural holding reduced its net profit by 5.0% to EUR61.9 million, and its EBITDA decreased by 6.1% to EUR145.77 million, while revenue increased by 21.3% to EUR618.93 million.
