July 23, 2017 UPDATE

Romanian tennis player Irina Begu wins BRD Bucharest Open / A Summer School on the Romanian exile after the war is held in Sinaia

Newsroom, 23.07.2017, 19:13

Ukraine – French President Emmanuel Macron will discuss on Monday over the phone with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko about the conflict in eastern Ukraine, France Press announced. This is one of a series of talks held by the four officials in the past three years, in an attempt to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict in eastern Ukraine that has made over 10 thousand victims. The ceasefire agreement signed in February 2015 in Minsk did not end violence between the pro-Russian separatists and the government forces, with the two parties accusing each other of having broken the truce.

Summer School — The mountain resort of Sinaia, in southern Romania, is hosting a Summer School on the Romanian exile after the war, which started on Sunday and will end on July 27th. The course is organised by the Institute for the Investigation of the Communist Crimes and the Memory of the Romanian Exile, the Romanian Cultural Institute, the Culture Ministry and Peles National Museum. The course is aimed at better understanding the post-war communist phenomenon by young people from Romania and abroad and is addressing students who attend masters and PhD graduate programmes in Romania and abroad and who plan to work on projects about the Romanian post-war exile.

Border – Traffic through the Romanian border checkpoints increased in the first half of the year by 7% as against the same period last year, to 26.8 million people. According to the Romanian Border Police, 22.4 million were EU citizens. Also, around 7.5 million vehicles crossed the Romanian border in the first six months of 2017, the same number as last year.

Gulf crisis – Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday started a two-day visit to three Gulf countries, Namely Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar, in an effort to help resolve the dispute between Qatar and four other Arab states, namely Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. The four states accuse authorities in Doha of financing extremist groups and of forging an alliance with Iran, the rival of the Arab states in the Gulf. Turkey has stood by Qatar since Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties and imposed air, sea and land blockade on Doha last month. Political analysts say that ever since the beginning of the crisis Turkey has been trying to play the role of a mediator, but its ambiguous position and its support for Qatar diminished its chances to succeed.

Tennis — Romanian Irina Camelia Begu, no. 58 in the world, defeated on Sunday Julia Goerges of Germany (WTA’s 45th seed) in the BRD Bucharest Open final, with 227 thousand dollars in prize money. Begu won in two sets, 6-3, 7-5. This is the first final played by Irina Begu this year, after last year’s one in Florianopolis, Brazil, when she defeated Hungary’s Timea Babos. Irina Begu has so far won four WTA tournaments.

Gold medal – The Romanian team made up of Vasile-Mihaita Tiganescu and Cosmin Pascari won the gold medal in men’s pair final at the 2017 World Rowing Under 23 Championships held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Also, the team made up of Cristina-Georgiana Popescu, Alina Ligia Pop, Beatrice-Madalina Parfenie and Roxana Parascanu won silver at women’s four final of the same competition.

(Translated by Elena Enache)