Covid Romania.
More than 4,300 new infections with Covid-19 were recorded on Friday in
Romania, as well as 101 new related fatalities. 1,067 Covid patients are in
intensive care. Several counties are now in the red zone with over 3 cases per one
thousand inhabitants over the course of 14 days, namely Timiş (west), Maramureş
(north-east, Ilfov (south), Cluj (north-west) and Braşov (centre). The
infection rate in Bucharest passed 3 on Friday, with the capital city now re-entering
the Covid red zone. The South-African variant of the coronavirus has also now been
identified in Romania in two Covid patients, one of whom from Bucharest. The
British variant had been indentified in Romania at the beginning of January.
Vaccine. The European Commission says no talks
are under way to buy the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, which is being
reviewed by the European Medicines Agency. Poland said it has no plans to buy
the Russian vaccine, but Hungary began to use it as early as last month. In
Slovakia, the vaccine caused tensions within the ruling coalition after prime
minister Igor Matovic recently decided to buy doses of the Sputnik V vaccine
without agreement from all parties in the coalition. The Czech Republic has
also ordered the Russian vaccine, invoking the slow delivery of the vaccines
ordered by the European Union. Austria said it would only order the vaccine
made by Russia if it is approved by the European Medicines Agency.
NATO. NATO’s Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană on
Thursday at the European Parliament discussed the external policy dimension of
artificial intelligence. In a lively discussion with members of the European
Parliament from the Special Committee of Artificial Intelligence in a Digital
Age, Geoană highlighted NATO’s importance as a transatlantic forum for
collaboration and coordination on emerging and disruptive technologies (EDT),
as well as the potential of cooperation between NATO and the European Union in
this area. Geoana outlined NATO’s ongoing work to understand and adopt new
technologies and maintain its edge, including the comprehensive roadmap on EDT
adopted by NATO leaders in December 2019, and the implementation strategy
agreed on by defence ministers in February 2021. Artificial Intelligence brings
about new opportunities for cooperation between NATO and the EU, such as the
exchange of best practices, but also coordinated efforts to develop the kind of
regulation that can foster innovation and set global standards for the ethical
use of artificial intelligence, the NATO official also said.
Police. The Bucharest
Tribunal ruled in favour of the temporary arrest of three policemen from a
police station in Bucharest accused of beating up and torturing two young men
last September. Nine police officers are indicted for kidnapping and torture.
The victims said they were beaten up after complaining that the policemen were not wearing facemasks and were fining people for no good reason. This scandal comes after another incident involving the police, where a
hostage-taking situation badly managed by the police ended with the killing of
two people.
Pope visit. Pope Francis arrived in Baghdad on Friday for the first ever papal visit to Iraq, where
he is expected to meet the members of the Christian community in this country.
During this three-day visit, the 84-year-old pope will visit a diverse but
dwindling Christian minority shaken by 40 years of war and economic crisis and
will have a historic meeting with the Shiite cleric, the Grand Ayatollah Ali
al-Sistani, in Najaf. He will be visiting six cities, trying to reassure Christians
and calling for peace during his talks with politicians and religious leaders.
The Christian community in Iraq today amounts to only 1% of the population. One
of the oldest in the world, it is made up especially of Chaldean Catholics, Orthodox Armenians and
Protestants. This is the pope’s first international trip since the start of the
coronavirus pandemic.
Film award. Bad
Luck Banging or Loony Porn, the most recent film by Romanian
director Radu Jude, has won the Golden Bear trophy at the 71st edition
of the Berlin International Film Festival – Berlinale, this year held in an
online format between 1st and 5th March. The film looks
into the relations between the individual and society when the leaked sex video
of a school teacher goes viral on the Internet, turning her life upside down.
It is an elaborated film as well as a wild one, clever and childish,
geometrical and vibrant, imprecise in the best way. It attacks the spectator,
evokes disagreement, but leaves no one with a safety distance, the jury said
about Jude’s film. The win comes six years after the director won the
Silver Bear for his film Aferim!.
Tennis. The
Romanian-Latvian pair Monica Niculescu and Jelena Ostapenko lost the women’s
doubles final in Doha, a WTA tennis tournament worth 560,000 dollars in prize
money. They were defeated by the US-Dutch pair Nicole Melichar and Demi Schuurs
in three sets. On Thursday, Niculescu and Ostapenko defeated the all-Czech pair
Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova in the semis. Monica Niculescu has
won 9 WTA doubles tittles, having played 18 finals. (CM + EE)