ATTACK — The anti-terror department of the Paris prosecutor’s office on Wednesday took over the investigation of the incident involving the French soldiers hit by a car in a Paris suburb. We remind you that a car ploughed into a group of soldiers in a suburb of the French capital city earlier on Wednesday, in what the local mayor said was “without a doubt” the work of a “terrorist.” Six soldiers were injured, with three left in critical condition. An ample police search was launched. The suspect, a 36-year-old man of North African origin who lives in the Paris suburb of Sartrouville, was captured, according to the Paris prosecutors office. France is still under a state of emergency, declared in November 2015, after Jihadists launched attacks that left 239 people dead, apparently targeting security forces.
FOOD SAFETY – The Romanian Food Safety Authority has announced there is no information according to which eggs contaminated with insecticide entered the Romanian market and that no such products have been sold in the supermarkets. The statements came in the context of retailers in several European countries having pulled millions of eggs from supermarket shelves as the scare over the use of the insecticide fipronil widened. The European Commission said it had first learned about the contamination in late July when it received an official notification from Belgium but had not yet established whether the country had broken any rules by not notifying sooner.
WARNING — The US President, Donald Trump, on Wednesday warned that the American nuclear arsenal is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before. “Hopefully we will never have to use this power, but there will never be a time that we are not the most powerful nation in the world!” Trump tweeted. Donald Trumps messages about the nuclear arsenal came after North Korea said it was considering plans for a missile strike on the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam. That in turn followed Trumps comments on Tuesday that any North Korean threat to the United States would be met with “fire and fury.”
TAXES — The National Union of Road Transporters in Romania believes that increasing excises on fuel would negatively affect the state budget, and call on the government to refrain from issuing such a measure, which was planned to be implemented starting September 1st. According to a planned executive order, diesel fuel excises would go up 24.9%, while unleaded gasoline excises would go up 22.8%. Transporters point out that about 70% of vehicles could fill up abroad, gravely affecting domestic revenue.
DEFICIT — Romania registered a trade deficit worth 5.8 billion Euro in the first 6 months of this year, up 30% compared to 2016, according to the National Institute of Statistics. Exports amounted to 30.9 billion Euro, up 9.6% from last year, while imports amounted to 36.7 billion, 12.4% more than the same period in 2016. In June alone, the deficit was 1.4 billion.
WEATHER — In Romania in the next 24 hours the weather will continue to be very hot over the entire country, especially in the west and south. Thunderstorms are announced in mountain areas. Maximum temperatures will be between 29 and 39 degrees Celsius. For Thursday, a code orange alert for high heat has been issued for 6 counties, and a code yellow alert has been issued for another 13. Over the next two weeks, the weather is expected to be variable, with maximums over an average of 34 degrees, with a high probability of rain.
(Translated by Elena Enache)
