August 12, 2018

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Newsroom, 12.08.2018, 13:05

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Translated by V. Palcu)