Radio România Internațional

Tag: ‘Untold’ Festival

  • August 7, 2024

    August 7, 2024

    INTEREST RATE – The Central Bank board is today analyzing the possibility of further reducing the monetary policy interest rate, currently standing at 6.75%. According to an internal analysis, consumer loans continue to go up amidst the reduction of interest rates for new loans and the relaxation of loaning terms due to growing competitiveness among banks. According to Eurostat, Romania reported the biggest increase of retail sales at EU level in June 2024 compared to the same period of last year.

     

    NATO – A detachment of the Spanish Air Forces will conduct enhanced air policing missions under NATO command, in partnership with the Romanian Air Forces. Spanish pilots are thus taking over command of the operation from their British and Finnish counterparts at the Air Base in Mihail Kogălniceanu (southeast). For four months, they will be overflying the Black Sea region to ensure the security of Romanian and NATO air space. This is the third rotation for the Spanish Air Forces in Romania, where NATO deployed allied troops in 2014 following the illegal annexation of Crimea, to ensure the security of the Black Sea region, an area facing complex threats in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

     

    MIDDLE EAST – The world’s diplomats are working around the clock to prevent an attack from Iran and its allies on Israel. The United States have called on countries in the region to convince Teheran an attack would not serve its best interests. Foreign Ministers of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) are today convening in Teheran to discuss the matter. The situation remains tense, with Israeli authorities on high alert after Iran promised a swift retaliation in response to the recent assassination of Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh.

     

    AID FOR UKRAINE – The EU Council has disbursed the first installment worth 4.2 bln EUR as part of the Ukraine Facility financial assistance plan. Kyiv is bound to receive 50 bln EUR in grants and loans to finance the state budget and stimulate investment. According to Radio Romania’s Brussels correspondent, Ukraine must implement reforms in public finance management, the functioning of state-owned enterprises, the business sector and energy, as part of the Ukraine Facility Plan agreed with the European Commission. Economic recovery, reconstruction and modernization in the wake of the Russian aggression are also key points in the Plan.

     

    UNTOLD – The 9th edition of the Untold Music Festival kicks off on Thursday in Cluj-Napoca (west). Some 250 Romanian and international artists will be holding concerts during the four days, including renowned artists and DJs such as Lenny Kravitz, Salvatore Ganacci, Sam Smith and Burna Boy. The latter is the only African artist with two consecutive sold-out events on London Stadium. Burna Boy will perform on the last day of the festival. Untold is the biggest and most popular music festival in Romania, attracting fans from all over the world every year.

     

    OLYMPICS – Romanian athletes are today competing in athletics, weightlifting, canoeing and wrestling at the Paris Olympics. So far, Romania ranks 16th in the medal standings, with 3 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze. On Tuesday, the Romanian Gymnastics Federation announced it has submitted a notification to the International Gymnastics Federation, calling for an investigation into the faulty examination of Sabrina Voinea’s floor routine in the Olympic gymnastics event. Federation officials have also submitted notifications to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS) to restore Sabrina Voinea’s bronze medal, who went to Jordan Chiles of the USA following an inquiry at the end of her routine. Voinea’s routine was rated with a penalty deduction due to the gymnast allegedly stepping out of bounds, something video footage fail to confirm, the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee wrote. In turn, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu expressed outrage at the whole affair, announcing he would not attend the closing ceremony as a sign of protest.

     

    FOOTBALL – FCSB and Sparta Prague were tied 1-1 on Tuesday evening in the first leg of the Champions League third preliminary round, played in Prague. The return leg is slated for August 13 in Bucharest. In case of a win, FCSB will play the winner of the match pitting Malmö FF of Sweden against PAOK Thessaloniki of Greece. In case of a loss, FCSB will continue in Europa League, playing against LASK Linz of Austria. (VP)

  • August 25, 2023 UPDATE

    August 25, 2023 UPDATE

    LAWS – The Romanian government will
    assume responsibility before Parliament for a law package concerning the reform
    of the state apparatus, the measures aimed at attaining fiscal balance and
    avoiding tax evasion. Wasting public money along with fiscal and tax evasion is
    preventing the country’s development, Romania’s Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu
    has said. The Romanian official will go to Brussels next week for a new round
    of talks with the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, over
    changing the budget deficit target, and according to some government sources,
    talks will also be focusing on the fiscal measures package. The opposition has
    announced its intention to table no-confidence votes against the PSD-PNL Government.




    DRUG ABUSE – Romania’s Justice Minister Alina Gorghiu has called on the Prosecutor General
    Alex Florența to intensify the line
    ministry’s activity combating the illegal drug abuse. Gorghiu says this
    requires a joint effort, recalling the latest investigations conducted by the
    Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) in Constanța or
    Cluj-Napoca, in the wake of which a number of cocaine or cannabis dealers were
    apprehended. Some 4,700 investigations were completed in 2023, although the anti-drug department comprises only 14
    prosecutors, according to Ministry figures. They have to work on a total of
    7,000 such investigations, of which 2,700 were started in the first half of the
    year.


    EDUCATION
    – The Education Ministry has launched for debate a draft emergency decree for
    the introduction of Holocaust Studies in school curricula starting the new
    school year. Among other thing, the draft decree also seeks to equate four-year
    BA degrees with MA decrees and provide accommodation subsidies to students
    choosing to stay in accommodation units other than dorms.




    UNTOLD -
    The UNTOLD Festival in Cluj Napoca is now number six in a standing published by
    the British publication DJ Mag based on the votes of festival fans. The
    standing ranks a hundred festivals, and UNTOLD ranks among the top three in
    Europe, along with Tomorrowland in Belgium and Gastonbury in Great Britain. The
    eighth edition of UNTOLD was visited by 420 thousand fans this year and
    featured such artists and bands as Imagine Dragons, David Guetta or Steve Aoki.
    The Neversea Festival in Constanța
    is also included in the standing, raking 41.




    FOOTBALL
    – Romania’s football champions, Farul Constanța, on Thursday night secured a 2-1 home win against Finnish side
    HJK Helsinki in the play-offs of Europa Conference League. In the same stage of
    the competition, the winners of Romania’s Cup, Sepsi Sfântu Gheorghe, ended in
    a two-all draw their game against Norwegian side Bodoe/Glimt. The decisive
    matches for qualifying in the groups of Europe’s third football competition are
    to take place on August 31.




    ROWING -
    Romanian athlete Cătălin Chirilă won
    gold in the 500m single canoe race on Friday at the 2023 ICF Canoe
    Sprint World Championships hosted by Duisburg, Germany. Chirilă was followed by
    Conrad Scheibner of Germany and Serghei Tarnovschi of the Republic of Moldova.
    This is a personal best for Chirilă in
    the 500m race, after last year he had grabbed silver at the World Championships
    in Dartmouth, Canada. Cătălin Chirilă will compete on Saturday in the 1000m
    race, where he qualified with the second-best result. The competition counts
    for the 2024 Paris Olympics, where the top six athletes will qualify directly.
    Cătălin Chirilă is the defending world champion in this event. (DB + VP)



  • 4 August, 2018

    4 August, 2018

    Politics. The National Council of
    the Liberal Party in opposition met on Saturday in Bucharest, with the
    president of the country Klaus Iohannis in attendance. The latter held a speech
    in which he attacked the ruling Social Democratic Party. He said the general
    situation in Romania is very bad and that normality must be reinstated. All
    opinion polls published in recent months show that 80% of Romanians believe the
    country is heading in the wrong direction, president Iohannis also said. He
    accused the Social Democrats’ leader Liviu Dragnea and his entourage of using
    the public office to advance their own agenda and escape justice. He also
    called on the Liberal Party to stay united and strong, saying a rational
    alternative is needed. The president’s attending the Liberals’ meeting comes
    amid conflicts within the party which the president tried to reconcile this
    week, when the invited the party leadership for talks. The Liberals’ meeting
    also features a presentation of the activity report of the party’s executive
    bureau and the criteria, the procedure and the calendar for the nomination of
    the party’s candidates to the European Parliament elections. A document called
    The Principles of Liberal Good Governance is also to be debated and adopted.




    Heatwave. Three
    people have died in Spain because of a heatwave that continues to affect
    western Europe, from north to south. The Romanian foreign ministry says the
    authorities from Spain, Portugal and Croatia have issued red and yellow code
    alerts for heat. In some regions in Greece and Portugal there is a high risk of
    fire. A reading of 45 degrees Celsius was recorded in Alvega, a Portuguese city
    located 150 km from the capital Lisbon. Scorching heat is also reported in
    Spain, with 40 degrees Celsius in Madrid and 42 in Seville. Greece says there
    is a high risk of fire on the islands in the north of the Aegean Sea, Central
    Greece and the Attica peninsula. The most devastating fires in recent decades
    caused the death of 88 people near Athens. A red code alert is in place in
    Croatia in several regions in the south and a yellow code in the Zagreb region,
    in the north-west. Very high temperatures have also been recorded in Austria,
    Italy, France, Britain, Holland and Belgium. In Sweden, which had the hottest
    July in the last 250 years, a glacier has melted. Meteorologists say new record
    high temperatures may be recorded over the news few days in Europe. The current
    record is 48 degrees Celsius in Greece in 1977.






    Gas. Romania’s ambassador to the United
    States George Maior had talks with the US Secretary of Energy Rick Perry about
    gas exploitation in the Black Sea and exports to other countries via the BRUA
    pipeline. Previously, Hungary unilaterally decided to shut down its section of
    the pipeline and no longer to invest in interconnection with Austria as initially
    planned. Maior and Perry also discussed other strategic projects in the Black
    Sea. George Maior said Romania has the historical, geographic, economic and
    strategic potential to become a regional energy hub. BRUA is considered to be a
    project that could be used to transport gas from the Black Sea to Austria and
    that could bring significant sums to Romania from both gas exploitation and
    transport and transit fees. The national company Transgaz began building the Romanian
    section of the pipeline two months ago.




    Festival.
    Untold, the biggest electronic music festival in Romania is under way in the
    Transylvanian city of Cluj Napoca. The festival’s ten different stages feature
    250 acts over the course of four days, until Sunday. The main stage is twice as
    big as last year, measuring 80 metres in length and 31 metres in height. The
    line-up includes acts such as The Chainsmokers, Armin van Buuren, Tiesto,
    Tujamo and Afrojack. For the first time, the concerts are broadcast live on
    YouTube. Hundreds of thousands of people are expected in Cluj for the festival,
    including from abroad. More than 1,100 gendarme and police forces,
    fire-fighters and medical staff are ensuring public order and safety. Dozens of
    video surveillance cameras are in place.


    Tennis. The Romanian tennis player Mihaela Buzarnescu, world no. 24,
    today faces Belgium’s Elise Mertens, world no. 15, in the semifinals of the
    WTA tournament in San Jose, California, worth almost 800,000 dollars in prize
    money. Last time they met, in January, Mertens defeated Buzarnescu in the final
    of the Hobart tournament. The Romanian player has won 36 matches this year.
    This is her fifth singles semifinal after Hobart, Strasbourg, Prague and
    Bucharest. Buzarnescu also plays the doubles semifinals in San Jose, where she
    pairs up with Britain’s Heather Watson. The two will face the Ukrainian sisters
    Lyudmilaand Nadiya Kichenok.

  • 3 August, 2018

    3 August, 2018

    Foreign workers. The government in Bucharest has
    agreed to increase the number of non-EU foreign workers in Romania by an
    additional 8,000, following the request of several businesses. The number of
    work permits issued this year has already increased by 50%. According to the
    General Immigration Inspectorate, 4,395 work and posting permits had been
    issued until July, mostly for workers from Vietnam, Turkey, Nepal, Serbia, Sri
    Lanka, China and the Republic of Moldova. 17,000 non-EU foreign workers are
    currently employed in Romania, mainly in areas such as the restaurant business,
    the building of ships and floating structures, trade and constructions.




    Tourism. Tourist structures in Romania have reported more than 5.2 million
    arrivals in the first six months of the year, up more than 4% compared with the
    same time last year. According to the National Institute for Statistics,
    Romanian tourists account for almost 76% of the number of arrivals. Among
    foreign tourists, the largest number of arrivals came from Germany, Israel and
    Italy. The border authorities have reported over 5.1 million entries from
    foreign visitors, 7% more than last year. Most foreign visitors to Romania come
    from countries in Europe. The largest number of entries are from Bulgaria,
    Hungary and Italy.




    Virus. Romanian farmers will be able
    to replace the losses caused by African swine fever, said the agriculture
    minister in Bucharest Petre Daea. According to the animal and food safety body,
    the number of hotbeds in Romania has reached 545. Almost 60,000 sick pigs have
    been culled so far. The authorities have called on the population to allow the
    culling of sick animals and respect prevention measures. The farmers affected
    have received compensations. Payments of around 32,000 euros have been made so
    far. The African swine fever virus cannot be transmitted to humans, but its
    social and economic impact is significant. The virus has been spreading fast
    since the beginning of June.




    Wheat. Cairo, the world’s biggest
    wheat importer, on Thursday bought 240,000 tonnes of wheat from Russia and
    Romania at a tender held by the General Authority for Supply Commodities in
    Cairo, the body responsible for strategic grain purchases on behalf of the
    Egyptian state. Russia is to supply 180,000 tonnes of wheat and Romania 60,000.
    The deliveries will be made between the 11th and the 20th
    of September. The confusion over Egypt’s policy regarding ergot, a type of
    fungus found in grain, last year caused turbulence on the global wheat markets.
    Eventually, the Egyptian government abandoned its zero tolerance policy for
    imports of wheat containing ergot.




    Festival. Untold, the biggest
    electronic music festival in Romania, got under way last night in the
    Transylvanian city of Cluj Napoca. The opening was attended by tens of
    thousands of people and saw fireworks displays and laser shows. The festival’s
    10 different stages are hosting 250 acts over the course of four days. The main
    stage is twice as big as last year, measuring 80 metres in length and 31 metres
    in height. The line-up features acts such as The Chainsmokers, Armin van
    Buuren, Tiesto, Tujamo and Afrojack. For the first time, the concerts are
    broadcast live on YouTube. More than 1,100 gendarme and police forces, fire-fighters
    and medical staff have been deployed and dozens of surveillance cameras have
    been put in place.






    Football. The Romanian
    vice-champions FCSB on Thursday defeated the Slovenian side NK Rudar Velenje 4-nil in the decisive leg of the Europa League second
    preliminary round and are advancing to the next round. The Romanian side also
    won the first leg at home, 2-nil. They will meet the Croatian side Hajduk Split
    in the third round. Also on Thursday, Viitorul Constanta were eliminated by the
    Dutch side Vitesse Arnhem after losing 1-3 away. They drew 2-all in the first
    leg. The Romanian champions CFR Cluj, who were eliminated by the Swedish side
    Malmo FF in the Champions League second preliminary round, will also play in
    the Europa League third round, where they will face the Armenian side
    Alashkert. The winner of the Romanian Cup CSU Craiova also
    play in the third round against the German side RB
    Leipzig.



  • August 3, 2017 UPDATE

    August 3, 2017 UPDATE


    EXTREME HEAT – Romanian meteorologists have issued a code red alert for extreme heat in place in 12 counties in western Romania until Saturday. The rest of the country continues to be under code orange alert. Minimum temperatures will range from 22 to 25 degrees Celsius, and the highs will go as up as 42 degrees over the weekend. Emergency measures have been put in place in all major cities. The national railroad company has imposed restrictions on rail traffic, to avoid accidents. Vehicles heavier than 7.5 tons cannot circulate on road in the counties under code red and orange alert. Several more countries, such as Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, Italy and France have imposed alerts for high temperatures as well. The Romanian Foreign Ministry has issued warnings for travel in Montenegro, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina.



    ARMY EQUIPMENT – Romanias Prime Minister Mihai Tudose held talks in Bucharest on Thursday with representatives of the American company Bell Helicopter on the intention to buy attack helicopters for the Romanian army. According to a Government communiqué, the talks were also attended by the Romanian Defence Minister Adrian Tutuianu, the Economy Minister Mihai Fifor, the Army Chief of Staff and the Chief of Staff of the Air Forces. The Romanian Defence Minister signed a letter of intent on the purchase of attack helicopters, which will be submitted to the US Government. In the coming period, representatives of the Romanian Ministry of the Economy and Bell Helicopter will hold extensive talks on the setting up of a joint venture, but also on the technological and know-how transfer needed for the manufacturing of such helicopters in Romania. The decision to purchase attack helicopters is part of the army spending plan recently endorsed by the Higher Defence Council of Romania.



    UNTOLD – The third edition of the Untold electronic music festival, the largest of its kind in the country, started in Cluj Napoca, northwestern Romania, on Thursday. The four-day festival features 200 world-renowned artists. Organisers have announced that this years edition is the result of a 10 million Euro investment. In 2016, the event was attended by some 300,000 people from all over the world, with 150 artists performing. More on this after the news.



    SAXONS – On Saturday, Romanias President Klaus Iohannis will attend in Sibiu, central Romania, the 27th Transylvanian Saxons Meeting, organised under the motto At home in the world, hearts in Transylvania. Iohannis has stated that this years meeting is an opportunity for the young generation of Saxons living in Germany to get to know Romania better, the country of origin of their parents. The event was organised by the Democratic Forum of Germans in Transylvania and the Association of Saxon Communities in Germany. The participants will be representatives of Saxon communities from Romania, Germany, Austria and the US.



    CORRUPTION – An international arrest warrant has been issued for the Romanian businessman Puiu Popoviciu, who was not found at home on the day he was supposed to go to jail for seven years, after a definitive sentence for corruption. On Thursday, the Bucharest Court of Appeal issued a European warrant, since there are indications that he actually left Romania in June, when no restrictions had been imposed on him yet. Puiu Popoviciu was sentenced in a case of corruption involving a 224 hectare land in the north of capital Bucharest.



    ASF – The Russian Sanitary-Veterinary Authority has imposed temporary restrictions on imports of live pigs and pork products from Romania, as an outbreak of African swine fever was reported in the north-west of the country on Monday. ASF is an infectious disease of pigs, usually deadly. It does not affect humans nor does it affect other animal species other than pigs and wild boars. According to the Romanian line authorities, the African swine fever has nothing to do with the classical swine fever and Romania maintains its status of country free of classical swine fever, which was reconfirmed in May.



    TOURISM – The number of foreign tourists in Romania increased by 10% in the first six months of the year, as compared to the same period last year, according to data made public on Thursday by the National Statistics Institute. Most of the foreign tourists were German, 30%, followed by Israelis and Italians. Between January and July 2017, more than 1.2 million foreigners visited Romania.



    IAAF – 15 Romanian Athletes are taking part in the IAAF World Championships, hosted by London between the 4th and the 13th of August. Romanian athletes will take part in the following events: triple jump, long jump, marathon, 20 km march, 50 km march, weight lifting, javelin, 1500 m and 400 m. Athletes from 213 out of the 214 countries members of the International Association of Athletics Federations are taking part in this years edition, with the exception of Russia, which is still suspended for doping. Romanian athletes have so far won 23 medals at the world championships: 5 gold, 8 silver and 10 bronze.