Radio România Internațional

Tag: world

November 15, 2021

COVID-19 The latest updates released by Romanian
authorities point to a decrease in the number of new cases in the
country-little over 2,100. The authorities also reported 195 fatalities,
and more than 15,000 COVID patients are hospitalised, 1,720 of them in
intensive care. In the capital Bucharest the infection rate dropped below 6 per
thousand. On the other hand, as compared to a peak of over 110,000 people
vaccinated on 27th October, the vaccination rate in Romania has also
been dropping steadily. So far 6.8 million Romanians have been fully vaccinated.

CERTIFICATE The draft law that makes the digital COVID
certificate compulsory at the workplace may be discussed as of today in the
Chamber of Deputies. In a first stage, the document was rejected by the Senate.
The interim PM Florin Cîțu called for exemplary mobilisation in the Chamber of
Deputies, so as to ensure the bill gets enough votes to pass. Florin Cîţu also
said he disagreed with the proposed free-of-charge testing of unvaccinated
workers, because this would put pressure on the public budget, whereas the
vaccine comes at no cost to citizens. In several cities, including Bucharest, rallies
were held to protest the possible introduction of the digital certificate and
other restrictions.

GOVERNMENT Negotiations continue in Bucharest, with
the National Liberal Party, the Social Democratic Party and the Democratic
Union of Ethnic Hungarians trying to reach an agreement on a governing
programme. After Save Romania Union left the ruling coalition in September, the
Social Democrats introduced a no-confidence motion and dismissed the Liberal
cabinet. Today the talks will focus on the public
finances and justice fields. The
Liberal Party leader and interim PM Florin Cîţu announced that as far as the
labour area goes, a 7% pension rise has been discussed, but that a final
decision is to be made after the impact on the public budget has been analysed.
He also said child allowances are also to be raised. In turn, the Social
Democratic leader Marcel Ciolacu mentioned the pension and child allowance
increases, but said several scenarios are being analysed and a complete set of
measures in this respect will be announced this week. So far the 3 parties have
not reached an agreement on a new prime minister designate.

MIGRANTS Brussels is hosting today a meeting of EU
foreign ministers focusing on the situations in Belarus, Ethiopia, Western
Balkans and the Sahel. Romania is represented by foreign minister
Bogdan Aurescu. According to a news release, the Romanian official is
taking part, alongside his EU counterparts, in an informal working brunch with
the Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba. Bogdan Aurescu will
also attend the ministerial meeting of the Eastern Partnership. As regards the
situation in Belarus, Romania’s foreign affairs chief will express the
country’s solidarity with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, which are facing a
growing number of migrants at their borders with Belarus, and will promise to
support swift additional sanctions against Minsk.

CLIMATE The agreement to reduce coal use, reached
at the UN Climate talks in Glasgow, is a game-changing agreement which sounds the death knell
for coal power, said the British PM Boris Johnson, the host of the
COP26. According to analysts, the document, although imperfect, is nonetheless
an achievement, insofar that for the first time in the 25 climate conferences
held so far, it explicitly mentions fossil fuels as elements contributing to
climate change. According to Radio Romania’s correspondent in the UK, one of
the critics of the deal was India, who said the plan to phase out coal use was
unfair for poorer countries.

FOOTBALL Romania’s national football team Sunday defeated
Liechtenstein 2-0 in Vaduz, but still failed to qualify into the playoffs for
the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, as it finished the preliminary phase 3rd
in its group. Second in the group came North Macedonia, which has reached the
playoffs after defeating Iceland 3-1. The top-ranking team in the group,
Germany, goes straight into the World Cup final tournament. Romania’s coach Mirel
Radoi announced he would leave the national team. Romania last took part in a
World Cup final tournament in 1998. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

15 November 2021
The French Resistance in Romania in WWll

Romania joined WWII in the
summer of 1941 upon a triple annexation of its territories a year before.

In June 1940, the Soviet Union
annexed the Romanian territories between the rivers Prut and Dniester also
known as Bessarabia and North Bukovina. In August 1940 Hungary annexed another
part of the Romanian territory, northern Transylvania and Maramures, while in
September that year Bulgaria occupied southern Dobrogea. The political crisis
that followed led to the abdication of king Carol 2nd and the coming
to power of a dictatorship led by marshal Ion Antonescu. The new regime forced Romania
into an alliance led by Nazi Germany, at war with the USA, Great Britain and the
Soviet Union.

The peace
treaties at the end of the First World War collapsed shortly after the fall of
France in June 1940. The occupation of France actually threw the continent into
the bloodiest and most destructive war by that time, with millions of deaths
and huge material damage.

Europe found
itself under the grip of the Nazi Germany and it took almost five years of
sustained military efforts to get rid of it.

But even in
those difficult years many people refused to give up entirely. Although resistance
to such a powerful enemy seemed to be futile, those people proved that even small
actions can count in the fight of a well-functioning war machine. In the
following minutes, Oana Demetriade from the National Council for the Study of
the Securitate Archives will be telling us the story of three brave French
residents in Romania who decided to spy for the Allies in the days of WWII.

Sound bite: There was a group of French nationals residing in Romania who decided
to spy for the Free France or for Britain. One of these is a French lady, named
Henriette Sümpt, who got Romanian
citizenship after two successive marriages and settled in this country in
1928. She decided it was high time she
did something for her country which had already signed a truce with Germany.
She established a connection with Special Operations Executive based in
Istanbul and started to send intelligence to the British agents there without
knowing that the aforementioned connection was being keenly monitored by the
Romanian Intelligence Service.

Back in the
day Henriette Sümpt used to be a secretary
for the Bucharest branch of the famous French news agency Havas. Around 1940
before the war had broken out she was using the agency’s database to provide
intelligence to both France and Britain. She started by giving information
about the movement of the German troops around Romania, military insignia,
registration numbers of the military vehicles, the type of weapons they were
carrying, the routes used by the military convoys etc.

During her
strolls through the Floreasca district, Henriette Sümpt could easily monitor the German planes taking
off and landing on the Baneasa airport in the north of the capital city. She
also travelled to other cities like Galati, Ramnicu Sarat, Focsani, Bacau, Iasi
and Botosani, all situated at Romania’s eastern border.

Here’s again
at the microphone Oana Demetriade.

Oana Demetriade: Together with French journalist, Maurice Négre, she managed to put together a small espionage
network and send some sketches to the allies. The drawings she sent were quite common
and even funny as they pictured only leaves, deer, dogs or a snake. However,
those were actually symbols for the German military units deployed to Romania,
which were soon going to see action in the Balkans or the USSR.

However,
the group’s activity didn’t remain unnoticed for long. Henriette Sümpt was arrested soon but eventually granted
clemency. Oana Demetriade:

Oana Demetriade: The entire network was discovered and its
members arrested upon a German intervention. Henriette was to be arrested first.
She was frisked and compromising documents were found on her. According to the
SSI agent who was interrogating her, she was a pretty lady, very intelligent
with extraordinary powers of observation and very good at drawing. She managed
to remain self-possessed while being apprehended by our agents. Upon the quick
trial that followed, Maurice Negre was released in a couple of months upon the intervention
of the French state while Henriette remained in custody. She would later pass
through several prisons, including the women’s penitentiary in Mislea. Her two
ex-husbands in Romania, who were still very fond of her, assisted the woman in
petitioning the state authorities and even the country’s king, Mihai, in order
to get her pardoned. Her previous sentence of 10-year forced labour was
commuted to one-year in prison and she was released on August 22nd.
Her release had nothing to do with Romania’s leaving the Axis a day later,
august 23rd.

Henriette Sümpt’s
story also continued after the war. She got involved in charity and worked as a
massager in recovery centers for athletes. She was monitored by the communist
Securitate after the war and reports about her were positive. In 1959, upon the
intervention of her third Romanian husband who had successfully left for France
and of her relatives there, she received a French passport and got repatriated.
Together with Henriette Sümpt and Maurice
Négre, Jean Paul Lenseigne, is the third French
journalist part of the brave group that got involved in actions meant to help
their country in times of war on the Romanian territory.

(bill)

20 September 2021
Sports Weekend

Romania’s national eleven clinched a 2-0 away win against Iceland on
Thursday in a match counting towards the Group J of the World Cup 2022
preliminaries.

The win comes after four consecutive defeats in two official games
against Germany and Armenia, and two friendlies against England and Georgia.

Dennis Man put Romania in the lead on 47 minutes and Nicolae Stanciu
added a second 7 minutes from time. The trainees of headcoach Mirel Radoi have
thus taken revenge after the 1-2 defeat last autumn in Reykjavik in the playoffs
for EURO 2020.

The Romanians seemed to have had a good control over the game and their
technical superiority was visible with bold and speedy actions almost all
throughout the match. Dennis Man put the
visitors into the lead after the break, then Ianis Hagi fired home on the 70th
minute, shortly after his entry but had his goal cancelled for a
challenge. Romania sealed the points on the
83rd minute after Hagi had fed Stanciu and the latter scored the
victory goal for the visitors.

We can say the match
against Iceland has been the best show put up by the Romanians since Mirel
Radoi took the helm. Now our footballers need to prove the game in Reykjavik
was not an accident and they can do it against Lichtenstein in Bucharest on
Sunday.

They will next take on North Macedonia in Skopje on Wednesday. Until
then Romania continues to rank fourth in Group J with only 6 points. Armenia
tops the table with 10 points, followed by Germany with 9 and North Macedonia
with 7. Iceland is last with 3 points. At the end of the preliminaries, the
first side in the group’s ranking is qualified whereas the second side goes
into playoffs.

(bill)

3 September 2021
Sports Weekend

Romania’s national eleven clinched a 2-0 away win against Iceland on
Thursday in a match counting towards the Group J of the World Cup 2022
preliminaries.

The win comes after four consecutive defeats in two official games
against Germany and Armenia, and two friendlies against England and Georgia.

Dennis Man put Romania in the lead on 47 minutes and Nicolae Stanciu
added a second 7 minutes from time. The trainees of headcoach Mirel Radoi have
thus taken revenge after the 1-2 defeat last autumn in Reykjavik in the playoffs
for EURO 2020.

The Romanians seemed to have had a good control over the game and their
technical superiority was visible with bold and speedy actions almost all
throughout the match. Dennis Man put the
visitors into the lead after the break, then Ianis Hagi fired home on the 70th
minute, shortly after his entry but had his goal cancelled for a
challenge. Romania sealed the points on the
83rd minute after Hagi had fed Stanciu and the latter scored the
victory goal for the visitors.

We can say the match
against Iceland has been the best show put up by the Romanians since Mirel
Radoi took the helm. Now our footballers need to prove the game in Reykjavik
was not an accident and they can do it against Lichtenstein in Bucharest on
Sunday.

They will next take on North Macedonia in Skopje on Wednesday. Until
then Romania continues to rank fourth in Group J with only 6 points. Armenia
tops the table with 10 points, followed by Germany with 9 and North Macedonia
with 7. Iceland is last with 3 points. At the end of the preliminaries, the
first side in the group’s ranking is qualified whereas the second side goes
into playoffs.

(bill)

3 September 2021
May 23, 2021 UPDATE

COVID-19 The PM of Romania Florin Cîţu said the vaccine rollout must be stepped up so that the relaxation measures planned for the forthcoming period may be implemented as soon as possible. Several vaccination marathons are held this weekend in various towns in the country, and drive-thru centres are operational. Since the end of December, over 7.3 million vaccine doses have been administered in Romania, with nearly 3.2 million people receiving the booster dose as well. Meanwhile, the number of new Covid-19 cases in Romania continues to drop, with 307 new cases reported on Sunday out of nearly 18,500 tests. This is the lowest number in nearly 11 months. In hospitals, the number of coronavirus patients in intensive care is 590. Also, 56 COVID-related deaths were reported for the past 24 hours.

COUNCIL The president of Romania Klaus Iohannis takes part on Monday and Tuesday in a special European Council meeting to be held in Brussels. According to the presidency, the head of state will plead for quick and consistent implementation of the digital green certificates at European level, but will reiterate that these must not affect citizens freedom of movement. Iohannis will also call for a European mechanism to be put in place as soon as possible to ensure vaccine donations to non-EU countries. the main topics on the agenda of the European Council are the EU-wide coordination of COVID-19 measures, fighting climate change, and the Unions relations with Russia and the UK.

MIGRANTS Romanian border police in Borş Sunday found 30 Syrian and Iraqi nationals trying to cross the border illegally into Hungary. According to the police, the migrants, aged between 3 and 34, were hiding in a truck registered in Turkey, with a Turkish driver, heading for France.

EUROVISION The lead singer of the Italian band Maneskin, winner of the 65th edition of the Eurovision song contest, will take a drug test upon their return to Italy, following drug use speculations, announced the European Broadcasting Union, which organized the competition. The allegations were sparked by competition footage showing Damiano David leaning over and touching a table with his nose. The band firmly denies the accusations. The Italian band won this years Eurovision contest with the rock song that had previously won them the San Remo competition as well. Romania failed to qualify into this years Eurovision final. Over the years, Romanias best performances in this competition were two 3rd places (in 2005 and 2010) and a 4th place in 2006.

ARREST Belarus forced a Ryanair aircraft to land in Minsk, so as to arrest a dissident journalist on board. Roman Protasevich played a key role in the protests against the re-election of Aleksandr Lukashenko. According to independent media, the Athens-Vilnius flight was diverted over an alleged bomb scare. Roman Protasevich, the founder of the Nexta online news channel, which covered the police brutality during the protests against Aleksandr Lukashenkos election, was arrested at the airport and faces capital punishment.

ROWING Romania won 6 medals on Sunday (one gold, one silver and 4 bronze) at the Rowing World Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland. In the country ranking Romania came 7th, after the UK, China, the Netherlands, Italy, Ireland and Germany. Romanian athletes won the gold in the womens double sculls and silver in the lightweight womens double sculls. The 4 bronze medals were in the womens pair, mens pair, mens four and womens four races. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

23 May 2021
Romanian society tends to look more and more like a dystopia

The Romanian society tends to look more and more like
the dystopia imagined by Huxley, who envisaged a world of stability and peace
where completely despiritualized people used to live in false freedom and
harmony. The restrictions imposed to limit the spread of the dreadful
coronavirus are changing the human nature in a very subtle way, which was quite
unpredictable in the early days of the pandemic. However, all these strange
things like the lockdown, the limited freedom of movement, the closed theatres,
cinemas and restaurants is the new normalcy. And so is the remote working. In
the following minutes, sociologist Vladimir Ionas is going to tell us more on how
the working conditions changed during the pandemic and how they are influencing
the psychological exhaustion phenomenon.

Vladimir Ionas: The pandemic has altered both the behaviour of
the employee and the employer. The idea of people working from home at first
raised a lot of questions related to productivity. However, productivity didn’t
drop during the pandemic as expected, on the contrary. And employers started to
like the idea of letting employees to work from home as much as they can.
Besides a lot of advantages related to rented offices and other costs,
employers realized that productivity is on the rise and that’s a good thing.

No one would have believed at
that time that one could raise productivity by working in pajamas and attending
ZOOM sessions. However, there are side effects, like increased psychological
and physical exhaustion adding to the burnout phenomenon, as working from home
implies a larger amount of work. Here is
again Vladimir Ionaș:

Vladimir Ionas: Employees are motivated by the uncertainties
related to keeping their jobs, and they want to prove that they can perform
well from home too or even better. So they have doubled their efforts, trying
to finish the work faster and they start being affected by the burnout effect,
which has been reported in an increasingly higher number of categories not only
in the medical personnel who have lately been subjected to an increased amount
of stress. There were employees who worked without breaks in a bid to finish
their work earlier and they even worked at night. There are also children who
are at home now because schools have been closed down and they need attention
too. So, there are many factors as you can see, which may lead to this burnout
effect.

Old vulnerabilities that we all feel at certain times
in our careers, have deepened during the pandemic mainly as the job market
doesn’t look very good nowadays. This has also exerted more pressure on
employees. Here is Vladimir Ionaș with more on the issue.

Vladimir Ionaș: The concern that we all feel these days about
our jobs has triggered in those working from home the need to prove that can
perform as good as if they were in the office. There were people even before
the pandemic who said they can do their jobs from home, they don’t need an
office, and the pandemic gave them the opportunity to prove they can be even
better at their jobs by working from home. Unfortunately, this situation has
prolonged and it proved that for some employees the amount of work they had to
deal with proved to be higher than before the pandemic. Even now, there are big
percentages, around 60-65 % of the active population, who prefer to do their
work from home because besides all the shortcomings there are also positive
aspects, like more time to spend with the family and the loved ones and that’s
a good thing.

School from home was also believed to be absurd until
the pandemic but now it’s reality, significantly impacting the development of
the young people’s social abilities. Let’s listen to Vladimir Ionaș again:

Vladimir Ionaș: Young people are bearing the brunt of the new
situation as they were at the beginning of a new life, a student life when one
has to go from hostel to classes and meet with friends and colleagues. They can
no longer enjoy the student life as we know it because most of the faculties
and universities shifted to online courses. And I believe these young people need
more attention from the psychological point of view. The fact that 65% of the
employees have voted in favour of home working even after the pandemic proves
they are pleased with how things are going on right now.

A question remains though: are we already seeing the
dawns of the society depicted in Huxley’s book or is this just an impression?

(bill)

28 April 2021
April 21, 2021

COALITION Ioana Mihăilă, state secretary with the Health Ministry, has been nominated by USR-PLUS to be the new health minister, after the Liberal PM Florin Cîțu dismissed Vlad Voiculescu last week. Previously, the leaders of the right-of-centre ruling coalition in Romania had reached an agreement ending the tensions that followed the unexpected dismissal of Vlad Voiculescu. They signed an addendum to the governing protocol, stipulating among other things that the prime minister is to inform the relevant political party of his intention to exercise his constitutional power to dismiss a cabinet member. The COVID-19 vaccine rollout remains a priority for the government and the coalition, reads the document signed on Tuesday night.

VACCINE President Klaus Iohannis said on Wednesday that he was quite satisfied with the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Romania. ‘We are very close to our targeted capacity of 100,000 people vaccinated per day. I am very happy with how the campaign has unfolded so far, and the preparations for this stage have been completed in record time,’ the president said. Mobile vaccination centres are operational in Romania as of Wednesday. So far the vaccination capacity is over 80,000 doses per day, and a total of over 2.7 million people have received at least one dose. In this context, the head of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccination Coordination Committee, Valeriu Gheorghiţă, announced that authorities are considering the option of giving vaccines in non-COVID hospitals for patients with chronic diseases. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, 3,006 new COVID-19 infections were reported, and the total number of cases since the start of the pandemic is now over 1 million. More than 26,600 COVID-related deaths have also been reported so far, 175 of them in the last 24 hours, and 1,436 patients are in intensive care.

CORRUPTION The Senate of Romania Wednesday greenlighted criminal proceedings against the former health minister Florian Bodog, at the request of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate. Anti-corruption prosecutors claim that while a minister, the Social Democratic Florian Bodog took steps to ensure that one of his personal advisers was paid for one year without showing up for work or actually fulfilling his obligations as an employee. Meanwhile the Liberal PM Florin Cîţu approved the resignation of Gelu Puiu (PNL) as a state secretary with the Environment Ministry, after an independent publication, ʹRecorderʹ, made public recordings pointing to a blackmailing campaign coordinated by Puiu and aimed at replacing county forestry managers with members of the Liberal Party that had no qualifications for the job.

TRIAL Former Minneapolis police Derek Chauvin was found guilty on Tuesday on all 3 charges brought against him after African-American George Floyd was killed last year. According to AFP, the sentence may be out in 8 weeks. The defendant may be sentenced to 12.5 years behind bars, although the judge may decide to increase it if there is evidence of aggravating circumstances. Tuesdays ruling is seen as a landmark in the US racial history and as a criticism of the treatment given by the police to African Americans, the international media note. According to Radio Românias correspondent in Washington, after the ruling the US president Joe Biden addressed the nation, describing systemic racism as “a stain on the nation’s soul and mentioning that the killing of George Floyd entailed protests unseen in the country since the 1960s. Derek Chauvin, 45, was filmed kneeling on Floyd, 46, for over nine minutes during his arrest last May.

HANDBALL Romanias womens handball team plays tonight away from home, in Skopje, the return leg against North Macedonia in the playoffs for the 2021 World Championship. On Saturday in the first leg the Romanians beat their opponents 33-22. Romania has taken part in all the 24 editions of the womens World Championship so far, and has won 4 medals (gold in 1962, silver in 1973 and 2005, and bronze in 2015). In the latest season of the World Championship in 2019, in Japan, Romania came out 12th.

FOOTBALL Romanias football team will play in Group B of the Tokyo Olympics, alongside New Zealand, South Korea, and Honduras, according to the draw that took place in Zurich on Wednesday. The group matches are scheduled between July 22 and 28. The Olympics football tournament in Tokyo ends on August 7. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

21 April 2021
Optimistic IMF forecast

The global economy is set to recover from the 2020 slump more quickly than originally forecast, encouraged at present by the soundness of the US economy, according to the latest forecasts made public on Tuesday by the International Monetary Fund.

The contraction in 2020 was unprecedented, the IMF says, but in 2021 the global economy is projected to grow at 6%, moderating to 4.4% in 2022. “Even with high uncertainty about the path of the pandemic, a way out of this health and economic crisis is increasingly visible, Gita Gopinath, the chief economist of the Washington-based organisation said according to France Presse. The IMF nonetheless fears recovery will be uneven across countries.

In the euro zone, the IMF forecasts are slightly increased: 4.4% this year. Germany is expected to see a 3.6% growth rate, France –5.8%, Italy – 4.2% and Spain – 6.4%.

Worth noting however is that the rate is too slow to make up for last years 6.6% contraction, and Europe has to wait at least until the summer of 2022 to fully recover.

The IMF has also improved estimates regarding the Romanian economy. Whereas in October the Fund expected Romaniato have a 4.6% growth rate this year, Tuesdays new projections point to a 6% increase. As for 2022, the IMF forecast is 4.8%.

Inflation is also predicted to go up by an annual 2.8% in 2021 as against 2.5% according to the autumn forecast, and to slow down to 2.1% next year. The current account deficit in turn will likely go slightly down, to 5% of GDP in 2021 and 4.7% in 2022.

The Liberal PM Florin Cîţu welcomes news as “fantastic, and sees them as a sign of the international monetary institutions confidence in the right-of-centre coalition government in Bucharest. In turn, the finance minister Alexandru Nazare says the IMF forecast confirms the Romanian authorities are on the right path.

“The economic growth forecast by the IMF is only on paper and for the right-wing faction; for Romanian citizens, its poverty, the leader of the main opposition party in Romania, Social-Democrat Marcel Ciolacu argues on the other hand. He says utilities and food prices have skyrocketed, peoples spending power is dramatically low, the exchange rate for the Euro has reached 5 RON, and more than half of the countrys GDP relies on debt, which means that Romania does spectacularly in accounting terms, but fails to develop in economic and social terms. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

7 April 2021
April 1, 2021

COVID-19 President Klaus Iohannis announced today that in the forthcoming period Romania will receive a substantial number of anti-Covid doses and the vaccine rollout can be stepped up. The head of state urged Romanians to have confidence in the benefits of immunisation. Romania is drawing close to 1 million infections since the start of the pandemic, with over 6,000 cases reported in the past 24 hours alone and a record-high number of patients in intensive care (1,434). The most cases were reported in Bucharest, but the highest infection rate is in Ilfov County, near the capital city. The death toll is now over 23,500. Meanwhile, over 3 million vaccine doses have been given since the end of December to more than 2 million people.

PROTESTS In Bucharest and several other cities in Romania protests continued on Wednesday, for the 4th night in a row, against the anti-COVID measures introduced by the authorities. Unlike previous nights, on Wednesday protests were more low-key. Participants chanted anti-government slogans, and demanded the lifting of restrictions such as mandatory outdoor face covering, online schooling and the closing of restaurants and gyms. The authorities argue however that the measures are necessary if the accelerated spread of the novel coronavirus is to be curbed.

REPORT The US State Departments 2020 Report on Human Rights Practices points out that Romania lacks efficient mechanisms to investigate and punish police abuse, and many corruption or abuse cases end in acquittals. According to the document, charges of brutality and cruel, degrading or inhuman treatment, brought against several police and gendarme members, have been dropped. Violence against women and children is also a serious and continuing problem in Romania, the report also reads.

INSTITUTE Bucharest celebrates today 100 years since the Cantacuzino Institute was founded under an order signed by King Ferdinand. Since 2017, the Institute has been subordinated to the National Defence Ministry. Over the years, the institution conducted research in microbiology and related fields, produced vaccines and serums and was involved in public healthcare. Cantacuzino Institute works with instituttes and universities around the world.

ENVIRONMENT The US president Joe Biden yesterday put forth a USD 2-billion investment plan targeting among others the creation of jobs and fighting climate change. The American Jobs Plan is an investment in America that will create millions of good jobs, rebuild our countrys infrastructure, and position the United States to out-compete China, Biden said. According to the RRA correspondent in Washington, Bidens advisers say the pandemic changed the US citizens attitude regarding the role of the government, and created expectations of unprecedented investments in the reconstruction of the country.

FOOTBALL Romanias football team lost to Armenia, 3-2, in Yerevan on Wednesday night. In the same group J of the World Cup qualifiers, North Macedonia defeated Germany away from home. The group also includes Iceland and Liechtenstein. With one win against North Macedonia and 2 losses to Germany and Armenia, Romania ranks 4th in the group standings, topped by Armenia and North Macedonia. Only the top team in each group moves up into the final tournament, and the second-ranking teams go into playoffs. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

1 April 2021
February 19, 2021 UPDATE

COVID-19 Romania reported 2,712 new SARS-CoV-2 cases in the last 24 hours, and 79 COVID-19 related deaths. Nearly 950 patients are in intensive care. The immunisation programme continues, at a rate of 40,000 vaccine doses daily. According to the National Vaccination Coordination Committee, the total number of doses used stands at roughly 1.3 million, with over 750,000 people immunised since the start of the campaign on 27th December.

AID The Republic of Moldova Friday received humanitarian aid from Romania, consisting in medical equipment and personal protection equipment to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Moldovan Presidency, the donation is worth around 2.3 million euro. The official reception ceremony was attended by Moldovas president Maia Sandu, interim PM Aureliu Ciocoi, the Romanian foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu and other officials. The EU Ambassador to the Republic of Moldova, Peter Michalko, emphasised that Bucharests help is vital.

BUDGET The Supreme Defence Council convening in Bucharest today in a meeting chaired by president Klaus Iohannis approved the draft 2021 budgets for national security institutions. In order to pass the state budget, the government needed a decision from the Supreme Defence Council with respect to the budget of relevant institutions. Also on Friday the Cabinet held a meeting to approve the state budget and social security budget bills for this year. On Thursday the cabinet had passed an emergency order scrapping a planned pension increase and the holiday vouchers for this year, and granting students a 50% public transport subsidy instead of 100% as it was before. The Liberal PM Florin Cîţu said the budget deficit target remains 7.16%, and that special attention will be paid to investments.

HEATING Mintia thermal power plant, part of the Hunedoara Power Compound in western Romania, was shut down over a coal shortage, which means that around 4,500 flats in Deva as well as public institutions in that town no longer receive heating. This comes amid protests at the coal mines in the Jiu Valley area, where workers are unhappy with delays in salary payments. It is for the 4th time in 6 months that the thermal power plant is not operational for lack of fuel. The energy minister Virgil Popescu said there are short-term solutions for the problems in Hunedoara, but that a long-term plan is also necessary.

SENTENCE The businessman Ioan Niculae Friday returned from Italy to Romania and turned himself in, after receiving a final 5-year prison sentence from the Bucharest Court of Appeals, for influence peddling and inciting money laundering and tax evasion. According to prosecutors, in 2008 and 2009, his company declared fictitious financial operations to dodge taxes. The state incurred losses of over 2.2 million euro. Niculae already served another prison sentence in a corruption-related case in 2015.

SKI The Japanese athlete Ryoyu Kobayashi Friday won the Ski Jumping World Cup leg held in Râşnov (central Romania), after the Norwegian Halvor Egner Granerud, the original winner, was disqualified. Kobayashi won his second competition this season and the 18th in his career, with jumps of 94 m and 98.5 m. Next came Kamil Stoch, of Poland, winner of this years Four Hills Tournament, followed by Karl Geiger (Germany). Granerud tops the overall World Cup standings after 22 legs. Another Japanese athlete, Sara Takanashi, won the womens competition in Râşnov, also held on Friday. A mixed team event is scheduled on Saturday. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

19 February 2021
Sports roundup

With 2 matches played in the Euro 2022 qualifiers, Romanias mens handball team ranks second in Group 8. Romania was defeated by Sweden in Gothenburg on Thursday night, 30-33, and won the following match, 36-27 against Montenegro in Baia Mare, on Sunday. On the same day, Sweden beat Kosovo, in Prishtina, 30-16. Sweden is top of the group with 4 points, followed by Romania with 2, Montenegro, also 2 points, and Kosovo with 0 points.

Romanias next game will be on March 10, away from home, against Kosovo. Twenty-four countries will take part in the 2022 European Handball Championship. Defending champions Spain and vice-champions Croatia are already qualified, and so are the host countries Hungary and Slovakia. The top 2 teams in each group and the best 4 teams ranking 3rd in their group will also move on into the final tournament. Romania last took part in a European handball championship in 1996, in Spain, where it came out 9th.

In womens handball, CSM Bucharest outplayed the Slovenian side RK Krim Ljubljana, 25-23, away from home on Saturday night, in the Champions League Group A. also on Saturday, FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria was, surprisingly, defeated in Budapest by SG BBM Bietigheim, 35-24, while Rostov-on-Don beat Team Esbjerg, 28-24. The game pitting Vipers Kristiansand against Metz Handball was postponed. After Saturdays leg, CSM Bucharest ranks first in the group with 10 points out of 6 games, followed by Rostov-on-Don with 9p in 5 games, Vipers Kristiansand, 7p in 4 games, Metz Handball, 6p in 5 games, FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria, 4p in 5 games, Team Esbjerg and RK Krim Mercator Ljubljana – 3p (6 games), and SG BBM Bietigheim, 2p (7 games). CSM Bucharest is next to take on Krim, at home on November 14.

The Romanian player Bernadette Szocs left the Table Tennis World Cup in Weihai (China), after she was defeated in the 8th-finals by Chinas Meng Chen, 4 – 0. Bernadette Szocs had to self-isolate for 15 days in order to take part in the tournament. She had come out 2nd in the qualifier groups, after losing a match to Hyo-won Suh (South Korea), 2-4, and winning against Dina Meshref (Egypt), 4 – 3.

In Romanian football League One, matches were played this weekend, counting for the 10th round. Top of the standings so far as FCSB and Universitatea Craiova, with 24 points each, followed by CFR Cluj with 21 points. (translated by: A.M. Popescu)

9 November 2020
Sports roundup

With 2 matches played in the Euro 2022 qualifiers, Romanias mens handball team ranks second in Group 8. Romania was defeated by Sweden in Gothenburg on Thursday night, 30-33, and won the following match, 36-27 against Montenegro in Baia Mare, on Sunday. On the same day, Sweden beat Kosovo, in Prishtina, 30-16. Sweden is top of the group with 4 points, followed by Romania with 2, Montenegro, also 2 points, and Kosovo with 0 points.

Romanias next game will be on March 10, away from home, against Kosovo. Twenty-four countries will take part in the 2022 European Handball Championship. Defending champions Spain and vice-champions Croatia are already qualified, and so are the host countries Hungary and Slovakia. The top 2 teams in each group and the best 4 teams ranking 3rd in their group will also move on into the final tournament. Romania last took part in a European handball championship in 1996, in Spain, where it came out 9th.

In womens handball, CSM Bucharest outplayed the Slovenian side RK Krim Ljubljana, 25-23, away from home on Saturday night, in the Champions League Group A. also on Saturday, FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria was, surprisingly, defeated in Budapest by SG BBM Bietigheim, 35-24, while Rostov-on-Don beat Team Esbjerg, 28-24. The game pitting Vipers Kristiansand against Metz Handball was postponed. After Saturdays leg, CSM Bucharest ranks first in the group with 10 points out of 6 games, followed by Rostov-on-Don with 9p in 5 games, Vipers Kristiansand, 7p in 4 games, Metz Handball, 6p in 5 games, FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria, 4p in 5 games, Team Esbjerg and RK Krim Mercator Ljubljana – 3p (6 games), and SG BBM Bietigheim, 2p (7 games). CSM Bucharest is next to take on Krim, at home on November 14.

The Romanian player Bernadette Szocs left the Table Tennis World Cup in Weihai (China), after she was defeated in the 8th-finals by Chinas Meng Chen, 4 – 0. Bernadette Szocs had to self-isolate for 15 days in order to take part in the tournament. She had come out 2nd in the qualifier groups, after losing a match to Hyo-won Suh (South Korea), 2-4, and winning against Dina Meshref (Egypt), 4 – 3.

In Romanian football League One, matches were played this weekend, counting for the 10th round. Top of the standings so far as FCSB and Universitatea Craiova, with 24 points each, followed by CFR Cluj with 21 points. (translated by: A.M. Popescu)

9 November 2020
May 10, 2020 UPDATE

Relaxation of measures — Another 9 people have died of COVID-19 in Romania taking the total death toll to 961 – the Strategic Communication Group announced on Sunday evening, the total tally of coronavirus infections exceeding 15,300. Of the people testing positive for COVID-19, over 7 thousand have recovered. More than 2,750 Romanians from abroad have been infected with the new coronavirus, mostly in Italy, Spain and Great Britain. Since the start of the pandemic, 100 Romanians from abroad have died. In Romania, restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic will be relaxed as of May 15, however, certain rules will have to be strictly observed. People have to wear face masks in enclosed public spaces, in shops, public transportation means and at the work place. Companies and institutions will have to re-schedule employees’ working hours to avoid overcrowding of transportation means and to allow employees to work from home, if possible. Still forbidden are the open-air events and meetings as well as indoor cultural, artistic, sport and religious events.

COVID – 19 world — Over 4 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection have been reported at global level, show data collected by the American University Johns Hopkins. The number of deaths the world over has exceeded 277,000. The US is the hardest hit country by the pandemic, accounting for more than a quarter of the confirmed cases of infection and for one third of the deaths. Experts warn that the real number of infections is probably much higher, given that the testing rate in many countries is quite low. The number of deaths reported daily continues to drop in some states, but there is fear that relaxing restrictions might bring about ‘a second wave’ of contaminations. Moreover, governments are preparing for an economic downturn since the pandemic has affected the global markets and the supply chains.

Parliament — The Romanian health minister Nelu Tataru, the labor minister Violeta Alexandru and the foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu are called on Monday in Parliament to brief MPs on the way in which they managed the situation during the state of emergency. A sensitive issue on the agenda of discussions is the situation of the Romanian seasonal workers who left to work abroad in full COVID-19 crisis. Minister Bogdan Aurescu needs to explain how the Romanian workers went abroad and why they worked in insecure conditions. The labor minister also has to answer the MPs questions related to the Romanian employees’ furlough and to the promised pension increase and the measures the government is going to take in this respect. The health minister is expected to provide answers related to how many individuals have been tested for COVID-19 so far and how many tests were made across Romania and also to what is going to happen after the easing of restrictions following May 15.

PSD — The speaker of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies and the interim leader of the Social Democratic Party PSD felt sick during a press briefing held at his party’s headquarters. He was presenting the journalists with some of the provisions of an economic recovery plan called “Restarting Romania.” The press conference was suspended and the official was taken to hospital, the doctors concluding that it was just a fainting spell.

May 10 — University professors from Cluj (northwest) are asking that May 10, which marks Royalty Day at present, should be declared the National Day of Romania alongside December 1. They suggested the model of Poland, which has two national days, or that of Hungary which has 3 such holidays. May 10 has a triple significance for Romanians: in 1866 the Hohenzollern dynasty was instated in Romania, with the coming to power of the German Prince Carol I of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen; in 1877 Romania proclaimed its independence after, one day before, Parliament had called on Carol I to sever all ties with the Ottoman Empire; and in 1881 Romania was proclaimed a kingdom. May 10 was the National Day of Romania until 1947 when Romania’s last king Mihai I was ousted by the then puppet Communist regime instated by the Soviet troops. In the past years, May 10 has been marked through various public events in Bucharest and other cities of Romania as well as in the neighboring Republic of Moldova. Princess Margareta, Custodian of the Crown of Romania on Sunday conveyed a message saying that the royal family joins all those who are celebrating the Crown of Romania, the country’s modern history and its aspirations of freedom, progress and democracy. (translation by L. Simion)

10 May 2020
March 30, 2020 UPDATE

Covid-19 Romania — President Klaus Iohannis on Monday reiterated his appeal to the Romanian citizens to observe the measures taken by the authorities to combat the new coronavirus pandemic. The latest toll in Romania shows 1952 cases of infection, according to the Strategic Communication Group. Tens of Romanians have died so far across the country and abroad following complications caused by the COVID-19 virus. Official data also shows that 209 patients have recovered. The health minister Nelu Tataru said he expected the pandemic in Romania to peak in mid April when the number of cases of infection could reach 10 thousand. The president of the Romanian Microbiology Society Alexandru Rafila estimated in an interview to Radio Romania that the number of coronavirus infections will start to drop in May, after the April peak. He added that, in autumn, a new increase in the number of coronavirus infections will be reported.

Covid -19 world — Over 750 thousand people around the world are infected with the new coronavirus and the number of deaths exceeded 36 thousand. Over 158 thousand people have recovered. 43% of the world population is urged or forced, at present, to stay home. In the US, the country that reported the biggest number of cases, more than 145 thousand, the authorities have extended by one month the recommendation of social distancing. Italy has reported a record number of victims, over 11 thousand. The second European state most affected by the coronavirus pandemic is Spain where the government has halted any non-essential economic activity to contain the spread of the virus. Other European countries severely affected by the pandemic are Germany, France, Great Britain and Switzerland. In another development, since the start of the outbreak, almost 250 thousand people have been repatriated in Europe by charters organized by the member states. Moreover, the EU civil protection mechanism has facilitated the repatriation in Europe of 4,384 citizens from Asia, North America, the Middle East, Africa and South America. Almost 100 flights have been scheduled for the coming days. (update by L. Simion)

30 March 2020