Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger has called for schools to be classed as ‘critical infrastructure’ by winter
Schools and other educational facilities in Germany should be classed as critical infrastructure to prevent their closure this winter due to possible gas shortages, the country’s education minister has argued.
Speaking to Germany’s Rheinische Post newspaper on Thursday, Bettina Stark-Watzinger said it should be a priority for Olaf Scholz’s government to make sure that schools and universities remain open even if the country ends up running low on gas this coming winter.
“I campaigned during the [Covid-19] pandemic already for educational facilities to be designated as critical infrastructure,” the minister explained.
Now that Russia has considerably reduced supplies via the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, and with talk of a complete stoppage in the future, “close attention” has to be paid to schools and universities in Germany, “so that it does not possibly come to class cutbacks or even cancellation” in winter, Stark-Watzinger warned.
According to the official, educational institutions will, however, have to become thriftier in how they use energy, and re-evaluations are already underway in many schools and universities.
Echoing the minister’s assessment, the head of Germany’s education and science workers’ union, Maike Finnern, noted that a lot of schools in the country are already energy-efficient.
However, Finnern also acknowledged that there is still room for improvement, especially in relation to older, “ailing” schools which are not adequately insulated.
The union representative hailed the fact that the German government had included schools, along with private households, in the ‘protected customers’ category of its gas emergency plan.
This designation means that these areas will be prioritized in terms of gas supplies if there is a shortage.
Gas shipments to Europe by Russia’s Gazprom via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline dropped to about 40% of capacity last month. Moscow claimed it was the direct result of Western sanctions, which prevented some key equipment from being returned to Russia.
To make matters worse, the pipeline is going to shut down completely for 10 days in mid-July for scheduled maintenance.
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James Murray to head security at Snapchat after 27 years in government service
US Secret Service Director James Murray announced his retirement on Thursday, leaving the White House for Silicon Valley. After 27 years in government service, including the last three in charge of protecting two US presidents, Murray will take over as head of security at the parent company of Snapchat at the beginning of August.
Murray “embodies the meaning of service over self, and protected the families of US Presidents like they were part of his own. We are incredibly grateful for his service to our country and our family,” President Joe Biden and his wife Jill said in a statement commenting on his departure.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said he “benefited tremendously” from having Murray as “a trusted advisor and highly regarded leader” at the DHS, which has overseen the Secret Service since 2003.
Murray took over the Secret Service in May 2019, under President Donald Trump. In his three years as director, Murray “contributed significantly to the agency’s continued professionalization and growth, and helped the agency navigate the unique challenges presented by the historic [Covid]-19 pandemic,” the Secret Service said in a statement.
Snap said the company was “thrilled” to have Murray as their head of security. When he reports to his new job on August 1, he will be in charge of security for the company’s 5,000 employees worldwide and report directly to co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel.
Murray joined the Secret Service in 1995 as a financial investigator, but transferred to the presidential protection branch in 2001. He was offered the job in April, but chose to wait till July in order not to be a “distraction from the president’s NATO summit, the Summit of the Americas out in Los Angeles and the G7 summit,” Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told the Daily Mail. He also wanted to wait until he could present the agency’s budget request to Congress, Guglielmi added.
The Secret Service was recently brought into the controversy around the 2021 riot at the US Capitol. During a televised hearing before the House January 6 committee at the end of June, Cassidy Hutchinson, aide to Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, claimed that Trump had attacked his head of security Bobby Engel after he refused to drive him to the Capitol that day. Hutchinson said she heard the story from deputy chief of staff Tony Ornato and that Engel did not dispute it at the time.
However, the Secret Service said Hutchinson’s claim was not true, and that both Engel and Trump’s driver were willing to testify under oath to that effect.
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