Radio România Internațional

Tag: atomic

  • October 22, 2022 UPDATE

    October 22, 2022 UPDATE

    ROME Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the
    ministers making up Italy’s most right-wing and Eurosceptic cabinet since 1946
    were sworn in on Saturday, AFP reports. The head of the League formation,
    Matteo Salvini and Antonio Tajani, a leading figure in Silvio Berlusconi’s
    Forza Italia are the country’s new deputy prime ministers. The ministers appointed by Giorgia Meloni, who
    obtained with her post-fascist party Fratelli d’Italia a historic win in the
    legislative elections last month with 26% of the votes, have shown readiness to
    ease tensions caused by the coming to power of a far-right Prime Minister. The
    nomination of the former president of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani
    for the position of Foreign Minister has been hailed by the president of the
    European People’s Party Manfred Weber as a guarantee for a pro-European Italy.
    The head of the Romanian government, Nicolae Ciuca, has congratulated the new
    Italian Prime Minister, voicing his confidence that the two countries will
    continue to develop their Consolidated Strategic Partnership.








    COVID The European Centre for Disease
    Prevention and Control has cautioned against the spread of a new Omicron
    subvariant, which is expected to increase the number of infections in Europe,
    the EFE Agency has reported. Preliminary surveys conducted in Asia have shown
    the aforementioned subvariant could evade the immune response of the human
    body. Andrea Ammon, director of the aforementioned institution has called on
    European states to remain vigilant about the spread of the new subvariant and
    monitor the number of infections as well as the hospital treatment of patients.
    According to the same institution, raising the vaccination rate remains a
    priority, and that risk groups, such as the elderly and the people with
    comorbidities, need additional booster doses.










    TENNIS Romania’s best tennis player and
    two-times major winner, Simona Halep, has been provisionally suspended after
    testing positive for a banned anti-anemia blood-booster called roxadustat at
    the latest edition of the US Open. The world’s former number one, Halep
    described the ban as ‘the biggest shock of her life’ and denied knowingly
    taking any banned substance. Throughout my whole career, the idea of cheating
    never even crossed my mind once, as it is totally against all the values I have
    been educated with. Facing such an unfair situation, I feel completely confused
    and betrayed, the athlete wrote on Twitter. The 31 year old Romanian athlete
    and winner of the Roland Garros tournament in 2018, says that her fight was not
    about ‘titles and money’ but her honour and that she hoped the truth would
    eventually come out.










    PERMITS Specialised structures with the
    Romanian Interior Ministry have in the past 24 hours issued 302 residence
    permits for Ukrainian refugees. A total of 78 thousand such permits have been
    issued since March. According to authorities in Bucharest only one Ukrainian
    citizen has applied for asylum in the past 24 hours. Roughly 44 hundred
    Ukrainians have applied for asylum in Romania since the beginning of the
    conflict and they are benefitting from all the rights stipulated in the
    national legislation. According to the same sources, 83 thousand people have
    crossed the borders into Romania in the past 24 hours, out of which 93 hundred
    are Ukrainian citizens.
















    VISIT The use by Russia of the nuclear
    weapon would be ‘an act of hostility against humankind’, Japanese Prime
    Minister Fumio Kishida said during his visit to Australia on Saturday, France
    press reports. The Russian intimidation concerning the use of nuclear weapon is
    a severe threat to the peace and security of the international community and is
    absolutely unacceptable, says the leader of the only country ever hit by a
    nuclear weapon. In 2023, Kishida is expected to welcome the G7 leaders in
    Hiroshima, the town which was razed to the ground by an atomic bomb in 1945
    when 140 thousand people died. The city of Nagasaki was also bombed three days
    later. In another development, Australia and Japan on Saturday signed an
    agreement on security issues aimed at offsetting China’s military power in the
    region.




    (bill)

  • August 9, 2020

    August 9, 2020

    COVID-19 In Romania, another 1,145 coronavirus infections were reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases since the start of the pandemic up to 61,768. More than 30,000 patients have recovered. The Strategic Communication Group announced that 458 patients are still in intensive care. The death toll of the pandemic in Romania is 2,700, with 41 deaths reported in the last 24 hours. The first COVID-19 case in the country was confirmed on February 26. The authorities urge citizens to get information from official sources only. Romania requested 10 million vaccine doses, when one is available, the health minister Nelu Tătaru announced. He added the vaccine will primarily be given to healthcare staff, to the elderly and people with previous conditions. Tǎtaru also warned that many cases are confirmed among tourists returning from their holidays, and reminded that the number of cases depends to a great extent on peoples compliance with face covering and distancing requirements. Apart from tourism, the health minister added, a number of other major risks have been identified, including business activities and regional commuting and transport. Tǎtaru expects a steady number of new cases next week, rather than an increase, but warned that the situation depends entirely on people observing protection rules.



    PANDEMIC Meanwhile, in spite of international and local efforts, the covonavirus continues to spread. worldometers.info reports at least 19.8 million cases worldwide, over 729,000 deaths, and at least 12.7 million patients recovered since the first case was reported in China 7 months ago. The worst hit country is the USA, which currently has over 5.1 million cases and over 165,000 deaths. Problems are still reported in Europe, with Britain still the worst affected (46,000 deaths), followed by Italy (35,000), France (30,000) and Spain (28,000). Many countries are stepping up efforts to create a vaccine. Singapore is starting human trials next week, in a first stage that would take until October. In Israel trials will also begin soon, while Russia announced it was producing 2 vaccines to be distributed this month—an announcement received with reserve by the World Health Organisation. The US has recently increased investments to support a potential vaccine currently in the last stage of clinical trials. Pharmaceutical companies around the world have signed contracts with countries like Canada, Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands for experimental COVID-19 vaccines.



    TIFF Today brings the last screenings as part of the Transylvania International Film Festival in Cluj-Napoca. On Saturday night, the winners of this years edition were announced, in an event where the director Cristi Puiu caused a stir when he urged people to take off their protection masks. At the opening of his latest movie, “Malmkrog, Puiu argued that it is “inhuman to have people watch a 200-minute long film with their faces covered. The Transilvania trophy went to ”Babyteeth, the debut feature of the Australian director Shannon Murphy. The award gala was held for the first time outdoors, in the Union Square in Cluj-Napoca, as were all the around 140 film screenings this year.



    LEBANON The leaders of the worlds most powerful states are discussing today, in a conference call initiated by France and the UN, means to raise aid for Lebanon, after the massive explosion that ravaged Beirut. The US president Donald Trump said he planned to join the call. Several countries promised millions of US dollars in aid and sent vessels, healthcare workers and materials to help. Romania has joined the international relief effort. Nearly 8 tonnes of medical materials and pharmaceuticals were donated and shipped on Saturday from Romania to Lebanon. Authorities estimate the blast caused losses of up to 15 billion dollars. At least 158 people died, 5,000 were injured and 300 lost their homes. On Saturday several thousand people took to the streets, and clashes with the police were reported. Lebanons PM Hassan Diab said he would push for early elections. Lebanon was already in a major economic crisis and struggling with the coronavirus pandemic.



    NAGASAKI The mayor of the Japanese city of Nagasaki urged the government to take more steps to eradicate atomic bombs in the world. Tomihisa Taue gave an address during the commemoration of the 1945 American attack on the city, which killed over 80,000 people, and said that as the only country in the world to experience the devastating effects of nuclear weapons, Japan should sign and ratify as soon as possible the agreement prohibiting nuclear weapons. On August 9, 1945, an atomic bomb nearly obliterated Japans fourth-largest city, after on August 6 another bomb had killed over 140,000 in Hiroshima. (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)