July 19, 2024 UPDATE
Click here for the latest news from RRI
Newsroom, 19.07.2024, 20:01
Energy – The government is preparing a plan of immediate and medium-term measures to cover the electricity consumption needs of both citizens and companies, regardless of the weather conditions, the Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said on Friday, at the end of the meeting of the Energy Command team. The immediate measures, as stated in the Government’s press release, include, among other things, the increase in energy production and the identification of a standard format for the conveyance/communication of electricity measurement data between distributors and suppliers. At the same time, the National Energy Regulatory Authority has announced that it will analyze the pricing mechanism in order to protect the final consumer from market fluctuations. Recently, the national energy system has been under pressure due to the heat wave. There have been problems with covering the energy needs, and the distribution infrastructure causes concern, as it is overloaded during periods of high temperatures, when electricity consumption is much higher than in normal periods.
Meeting – At the 4th meeting of the European Political Community, held in Great Britain, Romania’s President, Klaus Iohannis, pleaded for cooperation in the field of energy and for the continuation of the support given to Ukraine invaded by the Russian troops, the Presidential Administration in Bucharest announced. The Romanian president stressed that the efforts to strengthen cooperation in the field of energy and connectivity ‘are essential goals for strengthening national and European resilience, in a context marked by the challenge of managing climate change, but also by developments such as those in Ukraine, which reconfirmed the need for action to limit strategic dependencies’. A meeting of the leaders from Romania, Great Britain, Poland, France and Germany with the pro-European president of the Republic of Moldova (an ex-Soviet state with a majority Romanian-speaking population) Maia Sandu was held on the sidelines of the event. The Western partners have reiterated their determination to continue supporting the Republic of Moldova reach its goals of peace, prosperity and democracy, the quoted source said.
IT outage – Numerous banks, media institutions, airports, transports, hospitals and other activities are still affected by the consequences of what is called the largest IT outage in history, produced this morning. Microsoft has suggested that multiple shutdowns and restarts of operating systems, even up to 15, would be required as an effective troubleshooting step. CrowdStrike, the cyber security company largely responsible for the outage, explained that some systems do not restore themselves automatically, but promised that it made it its mission to ensure that every customer would fully restore their systems. However, the impact of cyber security interruptions will affect some applications and consequently the activity of many companies for days. In Great Britain, for example, the Government held an emergency meeting to analyze methods of managing the problems caused by the IT outage that affected airports, banks, the health system, television channels and others. Key sectors of daily life, including health services and public transport, were also affected in Denmark, Germany, Sweden and Norway. Even the 911 emergency system went down in the United States. The first to report problems were airports all over the world, including Romania, where, at the “Henri Coandă” International Airport, several flights were delayed, and the online booking and check-in at some operators were not available. Out of the 110,000 commercial flights scheduled for Friday around the world, 1,390 have been canceled by midday, according to Cirium aviation analysis company, quoted by the BBC. Passengers are advised to inform themselves before leaving for the airport.
Fires – The number of wildfires in Romania in June this year was almost three times higher than in the same period of last year, the National Agency for Environmental Protection announced. Despite the measures taken by the authorities and the checks carried out, in the first six months of the year there have already been 60 fires, while throughout 2023 there were 82 such incidents. The fire affected not only stubble fields and agricultural land, but also protected areas, such as national parks. According to the relevant Agency, stubble burning causes a reduction in agricultural harvests by 25-35%. Burning releases very large amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, which are some of the main causes of acid rain. Also, fires cause casualties among animals and birds in the affected perimeters.
Aid – The European Commission has approved an amendment to an existing aid scheme notified by Romania, including an increase in the total budget by 54.4 million Euros to support tomato producers in protected spaces, such as greenhouses, and garlic producers. The Commission concluded that the measure requested by the Romanian government is necessary, adequate and proportionate to remedy a serious disruption of the economy of a member state, in accordance with European legislation. Brussels’ decision comes in the context of the war waged by Russia against Ukraine and against the backdrop of the temporary crisis framework for state aid, the EC stated.
July 20 – The Day of Romanian Aviation and Air Forces is celebrated on Saturday, July 20, when the Orthodox calendar celebrates the Holy Prophet Elijah – the spiritual protector of aviators. A military ceremony and an air show will take place on Saturday morning at the Air Heroes Monument in Aviatorilor Square in Bucharest, when aircraft such as F-16, F-18 or Black Hawk will fly over the capital of Romania. (LS)
