Radio România Internațional

Tag: protests in Bucharest

  • February 23, 2021

    February 23, 2021

    COVID-19 IN ROMANIA – The anti-COVID-19
    vaccination campaign continues in Romania. According to the National Committee
    for Coordinating Vaccination Activities, some 820 thousand people have been
    immunized, the total number of dozes administered so far exceeding 1.4 million.
    Most people have received the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine. Other vaccines being
    administered in Romania right now are those developed by Moderna and
    AstraZeneca. A new batch of 200,000 Pfizer shots reached Romania on Monday. On
    Tuesday, the Group for Strategic Communication announced another 3,382 COVID
    infections reported in the last 24 hours and 119 related fatalities. The total
    number of infections has exceeded 784 thousand since the start of the pandemic.
    Over 20,000 people have died to the virus in Romania.




    COVID-19 IN THE WORLD – The total number
    of COVID-related deaths has exceed 500 thousand in the United States. President
    Joe Biden ordered flags be flown at half-mast on federal buildings for five
    days as a tribute paid to all the people who’ve died since the start of the
    pandemic a year ago. According to the latest worldometers.info update, over 112
    million infections have been confirmed so far in the world, and 2.5 million
    people have died. Over 87 million people have recovered. Meanwhile, European
    states are stepping up efforts to prevent the new COVID strains from spreading.
    Germany currently fears a third wave of the pandemic amidst plans to ease some
    of the restrictions recently introduced. Italy has announced an extension of
    restrictions on travel between regions until March 27 due to an increase in the
    infection rate. In turn, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a
    timetable for lifting the hard lockdown in this country in an effort to restart
    the British economy.




    VIDEOCONFERENCE – Romania’s
    President, Klaus Iohannis, is today attending a videoconference with European
    Council President, Charles Michel, and other EU leaders, ahead of the European
    Council meeting of February 25-26. In two days, European Council members will
    meet online to discuss the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic, and a common
    response to health, security and defense threats. EU leaders will review
    epidemiological developments. As regards security and defense, they will hold a
    strategic debate on European policies in these fields. High on the agenda are
    also actions to boost EU resilience, especially against cyber-attacks and
    hybrid threats. Participants will also approach EU relations with states in the
    southern vicinity. In December, 2020, EU leaders underlined that a democratic,
    more stable, greener and more prosperous southern vicinity is a strategic
    priority for the EU.




    BUDGET – The draft state
    and social security budgets for 2021 are due to arrive later today in
    Parliament, after the Government operated several last-minute changes on Monday.
    The timetable for debating and voting the laws will be accelerated, as the
    ruling coalition want the budgets to be adopted by early next week at the
    latest. Coalition leaders agreed not to table any amendments. The
    Social-Democratic Party in opposition, on the other hand, has accused the
    Government of proposing an austerity budget amidst an economic crisis generated
    by the pandemic and said it is preparing thousands of amendments.




    PROTESTS – Representatives of
    the Sanitas Federation of trade unions are today staging a protest before the
    Parliament in Bucharest, calling on Romanian MPs to modify the 2021 budget law
    so that both the beneficiaries of healthcare services, as well as health
    workers should have access to quality healthcare services of European
    standards. The Sanitas Federation announced it would continue its series of protest
    actions until its demands are met. Also today other protests are organized in
    Bucharest by representatives of the National Federation of Trade Unions in Law
    Enforcement, who are in turn criticizing the Government’s salary policies.




    SANCTIONS – The Russian
    Foreign Ministry believes the new sanctions the EU is considering to introduce
    against Russia are illegal and a source of disappointment. EU Foreign Ministers
    on Monday agreed to introduce sanctions against four high-ranking Russian
    officials close to president Vladimir Putin. The measure is tied to the arrest
    and investigation of opposition leader Alexei Navalny and follows Brussels’
    repeated pleas for the observance of human rights in Russia.




    FOOTBALL – Atletico Madrid is
    taking on Chelsea London tonight on National Arena stadium in Bucharest in the
    first leg of the Champions League round of 16. The match will be played in
    front of empty stands. With over 54,000 seating capacity, the stadium will be
    hosting matches counting towards EURO 2020, due to kick off in four months.
    National Arena will also be hosting matches in the U21 European Championship in
    2023. The stadium hosted the Europa League final in 2012, which Atletico Madrid
    won against Athletic Bilbao. (V.P.)







  • August 12, 2018

    August 12, 2018

    PROTESTS – Tens of thousands of people gathered on Saturday
    afternoon, for the second running day, in Victory Square in Bucharest, for an
    anti-government protest. No incidents were reported. Meanwhile, Romanian
    military prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation concerning the
    intervention of the riot police during Friday night’s rally. President Klaus
    Iohannis accused the Government of being irrational and acting against the
    interests of their own citizens. He condemned the violence occurring on the
    previous night in Victory Square, and asked the Interior Minister, Carmen Dan,
    to take responsibility for how the situation was handled. In response, the
    Interior Minister said that what happened was serious and that nobody could
    accuse the gendarme service for having enforced the law. Social-Democrat Prime
    Minister Viorica Dăncilă requested an immediate and comprehensive report from
    the Romanian Intelligence Service regarding the entities that planned and
    instigated the violence on Friday night, and regarding the actions of the
    public institutions in charge with providing data and intelligence on possible
    intentions to highjack the protests. Some 100,000 people gathered on Friday in
    front of the Government headquarters in Bucharest, demanding the resignation of
    the cabinet and early elections. There were violent clashes between the
    protesters and the gendarmes, and riot police used tear gas and water cannons
    to disperse the crowds. The gendarmes moved in after some of their colleagues
    were attacked. Over 450 people, including 35 gendarmes, received medical
    treatment further to the clashes, and 70 people were hospitalized, of whom 11
    gendarmes, including a woman who was beaten and had her gun stolen. The police
    have arrested 2 people in connection with Friday night’s acts of violence and
    have opened 8 criminal cases.




    MEASLES – 70 new cases of measles were reported over August 2-9 in
    Bucharest and 15 counties across the country. According to the National Center
    for Monitoring and Control of Transmissible Disease, 2 years since the epidemic
    broke out in Romania, the number of people who got sick now stands at 15,000,
    of whom 59 died. Measles can be prevented via vaccination. A quarter of the
    people suffering from measles need hospital care, and 1 in 1000 people dies in
    Romania to measles, doctors have warned.




    ANONIMUL – The Iceland-Denmark coproduction Under the Tree,
    directed by Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson, won the 2018 Anonimul Trophy at the 15th
    edition of the Anonimul International Independent Film Festival, held in
    Sfantul Gheorghe, the Danube Delta. The public also picked the other winners.
    Kaveh Mazaheri’s Retouch won the award for best foreign short, while Emanuel
    Parvu’s Everything is far away got the award for best Romanian short. The
    Ovidiu Bose Pastina award bestowed by the Anonimul Foundation went to Mother,
    directed by Spanish filmmaker Rodrigo Sorogoyen.





    NASA – On Sunday NASA successfully launched the Parker solar probe
    into space, which will try to ascertain whether the sun’s corona is hotter than
    its surface. The Parker probe will travel into the sun’s atmosphere, closer to
    any aircraft before. The spacecraft is fitted to withstand extreme temperatures
    and radiation. This will be the first aircraft to fly into the sun’s atmosphere
    and will transmit important data back to earth on the origin and evolution of
    solar wind. The probe will complete 24 orbits of the sun, travelling at
    approximately 700,000 km/h.






    GYMNASTICS – Andrei Muntean is the only Romanian who qualified to
    the individual finals at the European Gymnastics Championships in Glasgow.
    Muntean will compete in Sunday’s still rings final. Aged 25, Muntean won the
    Olympic youth title for this event in 2010 in Singapore.




    TENNIS – Romanian tennis player Simona Halep is today playing
    Sloane Stephens of the US, WTA no. 3, in the finals of the Rogers Cup in
    Montreal, with total prize money of 2,8 million dollars. On Saturday Halep
    ousted Ashleigh Barty of Australia, 16th WTA, in the semi-finals. In
    the other semi-final, Sloane Stephens defeated Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, last
    year’s winner. Sunday’s game is actually a rematch of the Roland Garos final
    earlier this year, won by Halep. This is Simona’s third final at Montreal. She
    won the 2016 edition.


    (Translated by V. Palcu)