Radio România Internațional

Tag: robotics

  • September 10, 2024

    September 10, 2024

     

    EC – Romania could receive, in the future European Commission makeup, the portfolio for social rights and housing, a position also with competences related to salaries, pensions and benefits, according to Romanian government sources. According to the same sources, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu had a discussion with the European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, in which MEP Roxana Mânzatu also participated, the latter being Romania’s proposal for the position of European Commissioner. Ursula von der Leyen will announce  the allocation of portfolios in the future European Commission on Wednesday.

     

    SENATE – The Romanian Senate starts debating an emergency order that sets a three-day deadline for toxicology test results, following the testing of drivers in traffic. If the results of the anti-doping tests, carried out only by forensic medicine institutions, will not be ready in time, the drivers will get their driving licenses back. Also in the Senate, the draft law on the introduction of the European minimum wage in Romania is being debated by the expert committees. The normative act establishes a new mechanism by which the minimum salary will be updated annually, so that it accounts for at least half of the average salary. On the other hand, deputies from the labor committee have on their agenda this week several legislative projects with measures for people with disabilities, which concern facilitating their access to public transportation or to polling stations.

     

    CARMAKING – At the Dacia-Renault factories in Pitesti (southern Romania) a program of voluntary departures has begun, with employees being compensated with substantial sums of money, proportional to their seniority in the unit. The management of the factory hopes to thus reduce the staff by several hundred employees, especially from the sections that will be reorganized following some automation processes. The premiums are 22,000 lei for seniorities of up to two years and can reach 150,000 lei for those with more than 16 years. During the campaign of voluntary departures two years ago, approximately 500 employees benefited from these financial rights.

     

    CHISINAU – 16 national theaters from Romania and the Republic of Moldova have met starting today until September 22, in Chisinau, where the 9th edition of the “Reunion of Romanian National Theaters” is taking place. During this period, the public in the Moldovan capital  can take part in 46 cultural events, indoor and outdoor performances, eight radio show auditions and six premieres. There will also be book launches, meetings with people of culture and personalities from the theater world. The event in Chisinau takes place under the slogan “European Connections” and benefits from the high patronage of the presidents of Romania and the Republic of Moldova, Klaus Iohannis and Maia Sandu, respectively. The guest of honor of the festival is the “Ivan Franko” National Drama Theater from Kyiv.

     

    FOOTBALL  – The Romanian national football team defeated the Lithuanian national squad, 3-1, on Monday evening, in Bucharest, in Group C2 of the Nations League. Winners also in Kosovo, on Friday ( 3-nil), the Romanians are group leaders, with 6 points. Romania will play the following matches next month, on October 12 against Cyprus and on October 15 against Lithuania, both away. The 2024/25 Nations League will also have a direct effect on the European qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup. The best four group winners from the Nations League, excluding the teams that finished in the top two places in the qualifying groups, will participate in the play-off matches for the 2026 World Championship, along with all 12 second place teams from the classic preliminaries.

     

    SCHOOL– In Romania, the new school year comes with a series of important provisions. Students from the 8th and 12th grades will finish school earlier, and the exam calendar, both for the National Assessment and for the Baccalaureate, has been changed. For those who will not take the exams, the courses will last 36 weeks and will end on June 20, 2025. Also from this year, students will receive a grade at the end of each module, access to education institutions will be prohibited with the mobile phone and special rooms will be created for students who disturb classes. In the new school year, the national plan to combat school violence is applied in all education units in Romania.

     

    COMPETITION – The HBFS Robotics team of the Politehnica Bucharest National University of Science and Technology  returned to the country with two gold, two silver and one bronze medals from the biggest robotics championship in the world, “RobotChallenge” 2024, held in Beijing, China. More than 5,000 participants from 31 countries  took part in the competition. Romania ranked fifth in the general ranking of countries in terms of number of medals obtained, leaving behind numerous states with tradition and influence in the field of robotics.

     

  • July 20, 2021 UPDATE

    July 20, 2021 UPDATE

    COVID-19 95 new infections with SARS-CoV-2 have been reported in the last 24 hours out of 31,200 tests performed, the Strategic Communication Group reports. 3 related casualties have also been reported. 14 cases of infection were confirmed in the capital Bucharest, 7 in the county of Cluj and 6 in the counties of Iasi and Timis. 244 patients are hospitalised, 36 of them in intensive care. Authorities foresee a slightly growing number of infections in the forthcoming period. As regards the anti-Covid vaccination, more than 13,000 people got immunized in the past 24 hours, more than 65% of them with the first dose. 4,800 people opted for the Johnson&Johnson single-dose vaccine. 4.7 million Romanians have been fully vaccinated so far. In the capital city Bucharest, 47% of eligible residents over 12 years of age have received the vaccine. Romania will continue, both independently and at EU level, to donate or re-sell some vaccine doses. This week a new donation to the Republic of Moldova is scheduled, after batches sent previously to Serbia, Argentina and Vietnam.



    AIR FORCE DAY The Romanian Aviation and Air Force Day was marked, as every year, on 20 July, when St. Elijah, the protector of pilots, is celebrated. The Romanian Air Forces are a modern category of armed forces, with structures undergoing a process of consolidation of their operational capacity, President Klaus Iohannis said in a message on this occasion. The Air Forces have a major role in consolidating the countrys defence capability, being able to carry out complex missions of defending Romanias air space, to conduct long-distance air transport missions and rescue-evacuation missions at national and local level and to participate in. NATO missions, Iohannis also said. He emphasised that 20 July is also dedicated to civil aviation workers, who carry out difficult missions in the context of the coronavirus pandemic and who contribute to Romanias economic development and the progress of air sports. The Romanian Minister of Defence, Nicolae Ciuca, and the Chief of the Defence Staff, Lieutenant General Daniel Petrescu, participated in the military ceremony organised at the Air Heroes Monument in downtown Bucharest. During the ceremony, wreaths were laid in memory of the aviation heroes. The 74th PATRIOT Regiment, the tactical combat unit established on December 1, 2018, whose mission is to render operational the PATRIOT surface-to-air missile system, were handed the Battle Flag.



    JUSTICE Perceptions on the independence of the Romanian judicial system improved compared to previous years, but the shortage of human resources remains a concern, reads the European Commissions annual report on the rule of law in the Union, made public on Tuesday in Brussels. On the other hand, the document says the perception among experts and company executives is that corruption remains high in the public sector. According to the report, the endorsement of a new national anti-corruption strategy for 2021-2025 is a priority for the government, and the efficiency of investigations and penalties for medium and high-level corruption has improved. As regards media pluralism and freedom, the absence of specific guarantees for editorial independence and editorial standards continues to cause concern, while transparency regarding the stakeholders in media institutions is still incomplete.



    THEATRE The best stage shows in Romania in 2020 were awarded on Monday evening, at the UNITER Awards Gala. The show “Heart and other meat dishes, by Dan Coman, directed by Radu Afrim and produced by the Marin Sorescu National Theatre in Craiova was designated best play of the previous year. Carmen Lidia Vidu won the award for best direction, for Romanian Journal. 1989, produced by the I.L. Caragiale National Theatre in Bucharest. Razvan Vicoveanu, with the Regina Maria Theatre in Oradea, won the award for best lead actor, for the part of Ivan Alexandrovici Hlestakov. Emoke Cato was awarded for best actress. Actor Marcel Iures, stage designer Geta Medinschi, actress Ileana Ploscaru and theatre critic Ion Parhon received lifetime achievement awards.



    ROBOTICS Romanias team won the first place at the International Robotics Championship held in Chicago, the US, on July 16 and 17. In the final, the team made up of students from 13 of the best Romanian high schools defeated some of the best American teams and set a new world record in terms of points won. This is the first time after 1989 when a team from outside the US wins the first place at this competition.



    PANDEMIC Europe is the first region to reach 50 million confirmed coronavirus infection cases since the start of the pandemic. The substantially more contagious Delta variant is now the most widespread on the continent, generating a record-high increase in the number of daily new cases, with European countries reporting a combined one million new cases every 8 days. Nearly 1.3 million Europeans died of COVID-related complications. A spokesman for the French government announced the country is seeing the 4th wave of the epidemic, and a plan is being implementing to reduce new pressure on hospitals. The plan introduces a health permit required for access in cinemas and restaurants, and compulsory vaccination for healthcare staff. Israel announced the opening of borders to foreign tourists, originally scheduled for 1 August, will be postponed. At present foreigners are only allowed in the country based on a special permission from the authorities. (tr. A.M. Popescu)