January 2, 2023 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 02.01.2023, 20:00

FLIGHTS Many flights scheduled to land on or depart from the Avram Iancu International Airport in Cluj-Napoca, north-western Romania have been delayed or cancelled because of the fog. The airport’s normal schedule was completely disrupted, with flights diverted to other airports in the country or in neighbouring Hungary. Hundreds of people are queuing and complaining that the delays or cancellations had not been announced by airlines. Cluj County is subject to an extended code yellow alert for fog, with visibility below 200m and in some cases even below 50m.

DRUGS Over 1,000 people were arrested for drug trafficking in Romania in the first 11 months of 2022. Many of them formed organised crime groups, and 55 such groups were dismantled. Over one tonne of risk and high-risk substances were seized, the Romanian Police announced on Monday.

PENSIONS As many as 4,787,920 pensioners were registered in Romania in December 2022, with the average pension benefits standing at roughly EUR 350, according to data centralised by the National Public Pensions Agency (CNPP). Nearly 700,000 of them had worked in agriculture, with pensions only amounting to EUR 100 in their case.

RECYCLING All traders in Romania that sell bottled water, soft drinks or alcoholic drinks in plastic, glass or metal containers between 100 ml and 3 l are bound to register within 2 months on the platform of a guarantee-return system (SGR). Otherwise, they risk fines between EUR 4,000 and EUR 8,000. The authorities want the system to become operational at the end of November 2023. Shops will also have to arrange packaging return centres. The prices of drinks will include the roughly EUR 0.10 packaging guarantee, which consumers will collect when returning the bottles. Romania will thus have the second-largest such system in Europe, after Germany, the environment minister Tanczos Barna said recently.

NATO Western countries must be prepared to provide long-term support to Ukraine as Russia shows no signs of relenting, NATO’s secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said. In an interview to the BBC, Stoltenberg said military support would ensure the survival of Ukraine as a sovereign country and force Russia to sit down and negotiate an end to the war. According to Jens Stoltenberg, Russia’s partial mobilisation programme, ordered in September, indicated that Moscow had no desire to end the war, and NATO must make sure that Ukraine stays in a strong position in the event of negotiation talks between the two sides.

UKRAINE At least 63 Russian troops were killed in a Ukrainian attack on Makeevka, in the east, the Russian defence ministry announced on Monday, quoted by international media. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, the Russian defence ministry’s spokesman, said four missiles hit a point of temporary deployment of the Russian army in Makeevka, a town under Russian occupation. Moscow, which very rarely discusses its losses, has never reported such a large number of casualties in one strike since the start of its invasion in Ukraine on February 24 last year. The media had previously released information on the attack in Makeevka, saying it had taken place on New Year’s Eve, and that a building hosting recently mobilised reservists had been affected. The strike was facilitated by the soldiers’ extensive use of mobile phones, which enabled the Ukrainian army to identify their location, Russian sources say.

POPE Thousands of believers have gathered in Vatican to pay their respects to the former Pope Benedict XVI, who died on Saturday aged 95 and whose body is lying in state at St Peter’s Basilica ahead of the funeral scheduled for Thursday. On Sunday Pope Francis paid tribute to his dearest predecessor, emphasising his sacrifices offered for the good of the Church. Benedict XVI, who announced his resignation from the papacy in 2013 on account of his ill health and age, was a highly praised theologian. The funeral will be presided over by Pope Francis, and it will be the first time in the 2,000-year long history of the Catholic Church that a Pope will be buried by his successor.

TENNIS The Romanian tennis player Irina Begu (34WTA) started the year 2023 on the right foot, defeating Shelby Rogers 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-1, on Monday, in the first round of the WTA 500 tournament in Adelaide (Australia). In the round of 16, Irina Begu will take on the winner of the match between Karolina Pliskova (Czech Republic) and Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia). (AMP)