Radio România Internațional

Tag: storage

  • August 16, 2024 UPDATE

    August 16, 2024 UPDATE

    Gas – Romania currently has 2.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas stored in underground storages, which accounts for over 88% of the total storage capacity, given that, according to the European directives, the storages must be 85% full on September 1, the Energy Minister, Sebastian Burduja, announced on Friday. According to an Energy Ministry press release “daily, Romania produces approximately 25 million cubic meters of natural gas, consumes about half, and another 10 – 11 million cubic meters are stored”. Sebastian Burduja has also announced that Romania will continue to store natural gas until it reaches 100% of its storage capacity. According to him, the storage of natural gas for the winter season is all the more important since the neighboring Ukraine has announced that it will no longer extend the transit contract of Russian gas on its territory.

     

    Pensions – 4.6 million Romanian pensioners are to receive higher pensions by the end of the month. According to the Minister of Labour and Social Solidarity, Simona Bucura-Oprescu, over 80% of the pensioners are to benefit from recalculated pensions. Roughly two million are to get their pensions higher by 100 Euros. For more than one million the rises will range between 500 and 1,000 lei but 7,700 of them will see more than 3 thousand lei added to their initial pensions. Significant raises will see the people who worked over 40 years and didn’t benefit from the correction index of the past years. According to Minister Bucura-Oprescu, no pension cuts will be operated, and people will receive their recalculated pensions in September.

     

    Gymnastics – The Romanian gymnast Ana Maria Barbosu on Friday came into the possession of the bronze medal won in the floor final at the Olympic Games in Paris. The event took place in a ceremony organized on Friday on the esplanade of the Olympic House in Bucharest, following the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport. We remind you that, on August 5, in the floor final, Ana Maria Bărbosu was awarded the bronze medal for a few tens of seconds, but the American Jordan Chiles filed an appeal and her score was increased, so she finished in third position. Later, Romania also filed an appeal, which was finally approved. “I am happy to be in the possession of this medal and I hope to continue representing Romania at the highest level and to bring it as many medals as possible”, said the athlete.

     

    Migrants – 32 migrants were discovered, on Friday, hidden in a truck driven by a Romanian at the border point at Nădlac II, in Arad county in western Romania. They come, according to the border police, from Iraq, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Afghanistan and intended to fraudulently cross the border with Hungary in order to reach Western Europe. The truck driver is being investigated for migrant trafficking, and the citizens discovered are being investigated for attempting to cross the border fraudulently. According to the waybill, the driver was transporting furniture on the Romania-Italy route.

     

    Navy Day – ‘Romania has been acknowledged and appreciated by its allies as a solid pillar of regional security and a major contributor to the process of strengthening NATO’s deterrence and defense posture on its eastern flank’ the Romanian president Klaus Iohannis said in Constanta, on the Romanian Black Sea Coast, where he participated in the events dedicated to Navy Day celebrated on Thursday. According to Iohannis, although we are living in times marked by multiple security challenges, in the context of the war Russia is waging on Ukraine, Romania is today a safe and stable country and its citizens are defended and protected against any potential threat. Thousands of tourists and citizens of Constanta gathered to watch the biggest naval show of the year, which involved the participation of over two thousand sailors and servicemen from Romania and the armed forces deployed here. The event was also attended by 15 military vessels, coast guard patrol boats, F-16 fighters, surveillance aircraft belonging to the USA and France, Puma Naval helicopters and paratroopers. (LS)

  • July 27, 2023

    July 27, 2023

    WILDFIRES
    Forty Romanian fire fighters are
    relocated today from Attica region on Greece’s Rhodes Island, heavily affected
    by uncontrolled wildfires, the Romanian General Inspectorate for Emergencies
    announced. They travel by sea together with 3 fire engines and a 10-ton fire
    truck, as well as a personnel transport vehicle. According to the Romanian Foreign
    Ministry, high fire risks continue to be reported today in several parts of
    Greece, while the weather is expected to change radically, with strong storms
    forecast especially in Thrace, Macedonia, Khalkidhiki and the north-eastern
    Aegean coast. Romanian citizens who plan on traveling to Greece in this period
    are advised to get fully informed of the situation ahead of leaving, and those
    who are already in the affected areas are urged to comply with the instructions
    issued by local authorities and follow official sources of information.


    NATURAL GAS Romanians will have safe access to natural gas, even in
    the case of lower temperatures than usual in the winter season, as Azerbaijan guaranteed
    Romania access to a capacity of up to 1 billion cubic metres of natural gas if
    necessary. The statement was made by the energy minister, Sebastian Burduja, who
    had a meeting in Bucharest with his counterpart E.S. Parviz Shahbazov. The
    filling level for Romanian storage facilities is over 75.5%, significantly over
    the level promised by Romania to the EU, and nearly 700 million cubic metres
    more than we had at the same time in 2022, the minister said in a social media
    post on Thursday. He added that he discussed with the energy minister of Azerbaijan about ways
    to develop the strategic partnership, bilateral investments and joint projects in the energy sector, including a green corridor to connect the Caspian Sea to
    the Black Sea. The cooperation between Romania and Azerbaijan in the energy
    sector entails major benefits not only for the two countries, but for the
    security of Europe as a whole, Sebastian Burduja pointed out.


    UKRAINE The Russian army hit the port
    infrastructure in the region of Odessa (southern Ukraine) in an overnight
    missile attack that killed a security guard and damaged a cargo terminal, the
    local authorities announced on Thursday morning. The ports in the Odessa region,
    at the Black Sea or the Danube River, have turned into the preferred targets of
    the Russian army, after Moscow recently terminated a deal allowing Ukraine to
    export grains to international markets.


    MOLDOVA The Russian
    Federation will have to downsize its Chişinău Embassy personnel, according to a
    decision made by the Moldovan authorities and already communicated to Russia’s
    ambassador in that country. Russia will keep 10 diplomats and 15 technical and
    support personnel, on a par with the number of staff of the Moldovan embassy in
    Moscow. According to Moldova’s foreign minister Nicu Popescu, Moldova has been
    for decades the target of hostile policies and activities on the part of the
    Russian Federation, and many of the Russian embassy’s activities were aimed to
    destabilize the country. In Moscow, the foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria
    Zaharova, said the decision was ungrounded and a further step taken by Chişinău
    towards deteriorating bilateral relations.


    WEATHER The weather cools
    significantly in Romania, where after a heat wave with temperatures above 40
    degrees Celsius, the highs are expected to range only between 19 and 28
    degrees, with some 25 degrees reported in Bucharest at noon. Thunderstorms
    made victims the previous day, with a 64 year old woman dead as a tree uprooted
    by the wind fell over her car on the Transalpina
    road in Alba County, and two siblings in Botoşani County struck by lightning on
    a field. In Harghita County railroad transport was disrupted after several
    trees fell on the tracks, several localities in Iaşi County were left without
    drinking water and the Black Sea port of Constanţa was closed because of the
    strong wind.



    SPORTS
    The athletes Constantin Popovici and Cătălin Petru Preda won the first medals
    for the Romanian team at the 2023 World Swimming Championships in Fukuoka
    (Japan). Today they ranked first and second in the high diving competition.
    Popovici, 34, is Romania’s first world high diving champion. Twenty-three
    athletes took part in this event. (AMP)

  • April 19, 2021

    April 19, 2021

    COVID-19 Over half a million Pfizer BioNTech vaccine doses reach Romania today, after nearly 4 million other doses received so far from the American-German producer. Since the start of the vaccine rollout in Romania on December 27, over 2.6 million people have been immunised, 1.6 million of them having also received the booster dose. Romania currently uses Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines. Meanwhile, 2,265 new COVID-19 cases were reported yesterday, out of almost 19,500 tests. This is the lowest number in the last 7 weeks. The authorities also announced 160 COVID-related deaths in 24 hours, and 1,475 patients are currently in intensive care. Again, the largest number of cases were reported in Bucharest, and the highest infection rates are registered in Ilfov County (south-east), followed by the capital and Cluj County in the centre-west, each with over 5 infections per thousand for 14-day periods. Another 7 counties are also in the red zone, with over 3 infections per thousand inhabitants.




    GOVERMENT The right-of-centre coalition in power in Romania, comprising the National Liberal Party, the USR/Plus party and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians, convene for the first meeting since the health minister Vlad Voiculescu from USR/Plus was dismissed last week. The USR/Plus leaders criticised the Liberal PM Florin Cîţu’s decision to oust Voiculescu, and requested an emergency coalition meeting to discuss withdrawing political support to the PM. In turn, the leaders of the other 2 parties in the coalition have reiterated their support for Florin Cîţu and underscored that USR/Plus must come up with a new nomination for health minister. On Friday, in a press conference after his dismissal, Vlad Voiculescu made serious accusations against the PM and other Liberal leaders. He claimed that he had uncovered vulnerabilities in the system, which prove the central and local authorities’ inability to handle the pandemic, accused PM Cîţu of disinterest and complained of lack of dialogue on the problems in the healthcare system.




    DIPLOMACY The EU foreign ministers are holding an online meeting today to discuss the latest tensions between Russia and the Czech Republic. Prague accused Moscow of being involved in a 2014 blast at a Czech weapon storage facility. The Russian foreign minister dismissed the accusation as ungrounded and absurd. On Saturday the Czech Republic expelled 18 Russian Embassy staff accused of espionage related to the blast. In turn, Moscow announced on Sunday that 20 Czech Embassy staff are personae non-gratae and have to leave Russia. The EU foreign ministers are also to discuss today the case of Russian dissident Aleksei Navalny, currently detained in Russia. Germany and France asked Russian authorities to provide medical care to Kremlin’s leading critic, whose health is deteriorating steadily. The White House warned that Russia would face consequences if Aleksei Navalny died in prison. The situation in Ukraine will also be on the agenda of today’s meeting. The head of Romania’s diplomacy Bogdan Aurescu will highlight Romania’s support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of neighbouring Ukraine, and will voice the country’s concern with Russia’s deploying troops and military equipment in Crimea, at Ukraine’s eastern border and in the Black Sea region.




    NASA The American space agency NASA today makes the first attempt at powered, controlled flight of an aircraft on another planet. The nearly 2-kilo Ingenuity helicopter will attempt to rise 3 m above the surface of Mars, and to stay there for 30 seconds before returning. The main challenge is that the Martian atmosphere is just 1% as dense as Earth’s at the surface, which gives the drone’s rotors little to lift on. This is why the vehicle had to be very light and compact. The rover Perseverance will send confirmation photos to Earth.




    PANDEMIC The total number of COVID-19 infections worldwide is now over 142 million, with 120 million patients recovered and 3 million dead, according to the latest worldometers.info updates. As of today, in Italy, only 3 out of 20 provinces remain in the red zone, with the toughest restrictions. The others are included in the orange zone, but many will be rated as yellow zone as of next week, allowing the reopening of restaurants and resuming travels from one region to another. As of today, 7 million children in Italy return to schools after over a year of absence. Meanwhile, UK reports decreases both in terms of COVID-related deaths and in terms of infections, and the number of people getting vaccines every 24 hours has reached 600,000. In Israel, mass vaccination led to the almost complete reopening of the economy. The infection rate has been staying very low for over a week. Israeli citizens are no longer bound to wear face covering outdoor, and school activities are back to normal. Across the ocean, over half of the total number of adults in the US have received at least a first dose of anti-COVID vaccine. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

  • April 15, 2020 UPDATE

    April 15, 2020 UPDATE

    TALKS Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis had talks on Wednesday with Prime Minister Ludovic Orban and members of the Bucharest government over the measures to be imposed after the state of emergency was extended for another month. The president called on the Romanians to stay at home, because otherwise the number of fatalities will increase after Easter. Another 5 people have been killed by the Covid-19 in Romania, bringing the death toll to 362. The total number of people infected has exceeded 7.200 out of which 1.217 have recovered and were released from hospitals. 245 patients are in intensive care units at present. 709 Romanians are infected by the coronavirus abroad, 420 of them in Italy. 52 Romanian nationals from the diaspora have died since the outbreak.



    MEASURES Romanias economy will by shrink nearly 2% this year, the finance minister Florin Cîţu announced. He added that a substantial set of measures is being prepared, aimed at revitalizing the economy at the end of the state of emergency. He explained that the measures to support the economy taken so far account for 3% of the GDP and that he expected the budget deficit to reach 6.7% after this years first budget adjustment. The finance minister said on Wednesday that funding for investments will not be cut, in any field, but that on the contrary, the budget of the Development Ministry is being increased. Investments continue, construction sites are open in Romania. the only way to recover from this is by investing, Florin Cîţu emphasised. He also promised that there will be no tax raises this year, and that cash will be injected in the system, as it was the case so far.




    POLL The level of concern over the present medical situation tends to intensify both in countries with little restrictions, such as Poland or the Netherlands, and in countries with severe restrictions such as Italy, Spain or France – a poll released on Wednesday by Kantar shows. According to the survey, two rather optimistic countries like Britain and the United States are seeing increased public concern only two weeks after the previous poll was published. The concern of Germans over the present medical situation remains moderate, as before. Romania has 5% more people concerned since the previous report, with the total figure standing at a rather high 80%. Most of people’s concerns in this country have to do with financial uncertainties. The poll was conducted on more than 45,000 people in 50 countries, of whom 1,800 in Romania.



    OIL Tens of ships carrying petrol and airplane fuel are stuck near major storage facilities in Europe, unable to unload as many onshore tank farms are maxing out as a result of demand plummeting over the coronavirus crisis. “There is excessive supply of oil products in the region, a trader told Reuters. Oil fields and refineries across the world have reduced their operations, and some even shut down as the demand for fuel dived. According to the International Energy Agency, in April the global demand for oil is expected to drop to around 70.4 million barrels a day, a level last reported in 1995.



    PANDEMIC The restrictions imposed in the EU to contain the spread of the coronavirus are necessary, but they come at a huge economic cost and cannot last forever, the European Commission says in a roadmap for the gradual lifting of isolation measures, made public on Wednesday. Prior to lifting these restrictions, epidemiologic criteria must be met, and the capacity of healthcare systems to receive patients and test citizens must be ensured, Brussels adds. “The Commissions immediate priority is fighting the virus and mitigating the socio-economic consequences of the pandemic. At the same time, we must start looking ahead so that Member States can gradually lift their containment measures, with a view to entering the recovery phase and revitalising our societies and economy, the Commission explained. The total number of cases exceeds 2 million across the globe, with the death toll standing at over 128,000. In the US, the new centre of the pandemic, more than 26,000 deaths have been reported so far. In Europe, the most affected countries remain Spain, Italy, France and the UK. Meanwhile, the US president Donald Trump suspended his countrys contribution to the World Health Organisation, on grounds of “poor management of the pandemic. In response, the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, says now is not the time to cut the resources and operations of the WHO or any other humanitarian organization in fighting the virus.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)