GRAIN 211 ships carrying 4.7 million tons of agricultural products have
so far left Ukraine under an agreement brokered by the United Nations and
Turkey to unblock Ukrainian sea ports, the ministry of infrastructure in
Ukraine has announced. The agreement signed on July 22nd in Istanbul
provides for setting up safe corridors for the transport of Ukrainian grain.
Ukraine’s grain exports slumped after the Russian invasion in late February and
the blockade on the country’s Black Sea ports, driving up global food prices
and prompting fears of shortages in Africa and the Middle East. Ukraine, a
major grain producer and exporter, used to have monthly grain shipments up to 6
million tons before the war. After the Russian invasion, Ukraine had to shift
to the road and river transport infrastructures to ship its grain to Eastern
Europe, but the quantities exported have been significantly lower due to some
logistic shortcomings.
ELECTION Italy might for the first time have a woman as a Prime Minister after
the legislative election today. And also for the first time since WWII, the far
right could come to power. According to the polls, Brothers of Italy, a party led
by Giorgia Meloni, with origins in a fascist movement is likely to gather
almost 25% of the votes. The far-right coalition, which is expected to win 50%
of the votes, also includes Matteo Salvini’s League and Silvio Berlusconi’s
Forza Italia. The pro-European left wing is expected to muster fewer than 30%
of the total number of votes. According to Radio Romania correspondent in
Italy, in spite of the importance of this election, many Italians aren’t going
to the polls, which might destabilize the domestic situation. Polls show that
90% of the Italians are worried by soaring energy prices. Parties came with a
wide range of solutions, although not all of them have been presented clearly.
VISIT Over September 26-28, Romania’s Prime Minister, Nicolae
Ciuca is paying a visit to Tokyo to participate in the state funeral staged in
the honor of the country’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. According to a
government communiqué, the former Japanese Prime Minister made a significant
contribution to lifting the bilateral relations between the two countries to
the degree of a strategic partnership during the visit he paid to Bucharest in
2018, being the first Japanese Prime Minister to have visited Romania. Japan
is one of Romania’s main partners in Asia both at political and economic level
and there are all the prerequisites to transform this bilateral relation
spanning more than one century in a privileged relation at the level of
strategic partnership, Prime Minister Ciuca has said. On the sidelines of his
visit to Tokyo, the Romanian official will be received by his Japanese
counterpart Fumio Kishida and will be having talks with the delegation of the
Japan-Romania Parliamentary Friendship League chaired by Ichiro Aisawa and with
Hosoda Hiroyuki, Speaker of the House of Representatives of Japan.
SPORT The Romanian women’s double scull as well as women’s and men’s
eights from Romania are today participating in three finals of the World Rowing
Championships underway in Racice, the Czech Republic. The Romanian men’s double
scull made up of Marius Cozmiuc and Sergiu Bejan became gold medalist on
Saturday while on Friday Ionela Cozmiuc of Romania came first in the
lightweight women’s single scull race. We recall that Cozmiuc also walked away
with gold from the European Championships in Munich this summer.
REFUGEES According to sources with the Romanian Border Police, 10,385
Ukrainian citizens entered Romania on Saturday, 6.3% more than in the previous
day. Since February 10th, 2,408,155 Ukrainian nationals have entered
Romania. Checking at Romania’s borders has been done in accordance with the
provisions of the national and community legislation.
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