Predictably the Russia-Ukraine spat over gas supply has started to affect supplies to the EU, with Russia claiming that Ukraine is stealing the EU’s gas and then there’s the odd question of the Turkmenistan gas that Ukraine is supposed to receive, that BBC report quotes Gazprom as saying “Today the Ukrainian gas transporting system is receiving nothing but Russian gas” which begs the question is Russia blocking the supply of Turkmen gas to Ukraine as well ?

To go along with this there’s an editorial at the BBC looking at “Energy and the new world power play” which makes a couple of nice counterpoints to the current state of play in the middle east, saying:

Oil played its part in a 1953 coup in Iran – organised by the US and Britain. They overthrew an elected prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh and installed Shah Reza Pahlavi instead, a move that still reverberates in relations with Iran.

and:

We learned from British archives released a couple of years ago that in 1973, the US drew up a plan to seize oilfields in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi in response to the Arab oil embargo.

It’s well worth a read if you want to find out things like why China tends to block UN resolutions in Sudan and the like..

The BBC is reporting this case of Russia apparently trying to strong-arm Ukraine into accepting much higher gas prices than other customers of Gazprom.

Ukraine insists that the planned price rise is politically motivated, in the wake of Kiev’s Orange Revolution and the election of its pro-Western President, Viktor Yushchenko.Other countries which remain in Russia’s sphere of influence continue to receive gas at below-market prices.

Europe worries that this will also affect Russian gas exports to it as they go via Ukraine, but Gazprom say it won’t.

Here’s my original take on the discussion of this at the BBC that’s unfortunately too long for their comment system:

It appears to me that many are missing the whole point of Intelligent Design. It was not dreamt up to be a serious alternative to evolution (it can’t be because it’s not scientifically testable) but to be part of the leaked “Wedge Strategy” by the evangelical “Discovery Institute” to try and undermine science and replace it with a version that is based on Christianity.

There is no attempt at objectivity or experimental verification here, merely an attempt to socially engineer American society to reflect conservative Christian values.

This is not science, not even religion really, just a political tool being used for political ends to try and establish a single religion in the US political system, which the US constitution prohibits.

So, the judge in Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District, et al. has ruled that:

“The proper application of both the endorsement and Lemon tests to the facts of this case makes it abundantly clear that the Board’s ID Policy violates the Establishment Clause. In making this determination, we have addressed the seminal question of whether ID is science. We have concluded that it is not, and moreover that ID cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents.”

So now “Intelligent Design” like its parent, Creationism, is now barred from being taught in public schools as an alternative to Evolution in that school district, & a precedent for the rest of the country. Common sense prevails!

Google News has all the reporting.