August 18, 2024 UPDATE
A roundup of the latest local and world news
Newsroom, 18.08.2024, 19:18
TALKS The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken has been assigned a new mission in Israel – part of Washington’s stepped up efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, meant to put an end to the 10 month clashes between Israel and Hamas. The tenth Middle East trip of the high US official since the onset of the war last October, comes a couple of days since the US forwarded a series of agreement proposals, which together with the other mediators, Qatar and Egypt, believes would be filling the gap between the sides. In response, the Islamist group Hamas rejected the new ceasefire project in Gaza. The talks in Doha have achieved no progress, Hamas representatives say, describing the talks’ outcome as an illusion. Israeli representatives are to meet representatives of the mediating countries in Cairo on Thursday. The war, which followed the attack on October 7th last year, when Hamas killed 12 hundred Israelis, has led to a disastrous humanitarian situation for the nearly 2.4 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, who are now suffering from a food shortage, while the IDF bombardments and onslaught have caused the death of 40 thousand people, mostly civilians.
WAR Ukraine announced that its forces have destroyed another bridge over the Seym River in Russia as the Ukrainian onslaught continues in the region of Kursk. The commander of the Ukrainian air forces said the reason behind the destruction of the aforementioned bridge was to cut off the supply routes for Russian troops. This has been the second bridge destroyed by the Ukrainians in a week, which contributes to the isolation of the Russian troops south of the Seym River. Also on Sunday, Russia launched a second ballistic missile against Kyiv, but according to the Ukrainian military administration it was intercepted and destroyed before reaching the city. Ukraine anti-aircraft defence units have also destroyed a series of drones launched by Moscow. Russia has qualified Ukraine’s incursion as a major provocation and vowed to retaliate with a worthy response. The United States and the Western powers who want to avoid direct military confrontation with Moscow said that Ukraine had not given advance notice and that Washington was not involved. The countries which are backing Ukraine after the Russian invasion in February 2022, have so far refused to allow this country to use long-range weapons against Russia in an attempt to avoid the escalation of the conflict.
RABLA A new stage of the ‘Rabla Plus’ programme, aimed at renewing Romania’s car fleet, is due to kick off on Monday, when natural persons willing to replace their vehicles, can benefit from a budget of roughly 20 million Euros. Those interested in buying an all-electric car can benefit from a voucher of 5130 Euros, while those who want to buy a hybrid car or an electric motorcycle will get 2615 Euros. A person can hand over maximum two vehicles, older than six years, and the price of the electric vehicle they want to buy should not exceed 70 thousand Euros.
WEATHER The weather remains extremely hot in almost the entire Romanian territory where meteorologists have issued a series of code yellow, orange and red alerts for extremely high temperatures and thermal discomfort. The most affected is the Timis County in western Romania, for which a code red alert has been issued. Temperatures there are expected to reach 39 degrees Celsius and the Temperature-Humidity index to go over the 80 unit threshold. An orange code alert has been issued for another ten counties in the country’s west and south, including the capital city Bucharest where the highs of the day are expected to reach 38 degrees Celsius. The noon reading in Bucharest was 31 degrees.
PARIS An icon of the French cinematography, Alain Delon, died On Sunday at his home in Douchy surrounded by his three children and his family. The actor was a star of the golden era of the French cinematography, and shot to fame with the parts he played in ‘The Samurai’ and ‘Borsalino’. Once described as the most beautiful man in the movies, Alain Delon starred in some of the best French productions of the 60s, such as ‘The Leopard’ and ‘Rocco and his Brothers’. From the 1990s his film appearances grew rare and although he appeared in more than 90 films during the course of his career, he won only one Cesar Award in 1985 for ‘Our story’ by Bertrand Blier. Le Parisien called Delon ‘a legend of the cinema’ while Liberation described him as ‘a leading figure of cinema, the actor with crazy charisma’. Alain Delon’s last major public appearance was to receive an honorary Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival in 2019, when he delivered an emotional speech in which he appeared to bid farewell to cinema and his fans.
ATHENS The Romanian firefighters who had joined the efforts of putting out fires in Greece were given a new assignment on Saturday; they are monitoring two regions in Attica. According to a press release by the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations (IGSU), 16 firefighters with four fire engines have been deployed to Agia Kiriaki, while another 15-strong rescue team is getting ready to intervene in Rafina. Both teams are accompanied by Greek liaison officers, and according to IGSU, they are in stand-by, ready to intervene under the coordination of their Greek counterparts. The regions where the two Romanian teams have been deployed are known for being at higher risk of wildfires at this time of the year. Greece has applied for help from the European Union and is in a state of high alert after wildfires went out of control and have affected over 10 thousand hectares.
EXAMS Next week will be seeing the written exams of the second round of the Baccalaureate session in Romania. On Monday students are to take exams in the Romanian language and Literature and in the following days in mathematics and history according to their chosen profile. The first results are to be listed on August 26th and the final ones after all applications have been solved, on August 30th. Over 33,600 students are to take their exams in this second round. Most of them, two thirds, are this year’s graduates. Over 78% of the students passed the baccalaureate exams in its first summer session. The Ministry of Education plans to allow students to see their exam papers shortly after grading so that they may decide whether to challenge results.
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