July 3, 2022

A roundup of news from Romania and the world

Newsroom, 03.07.2022, 13:55

Refugees – On July 2, within 24 hours, at national level, 177,869 people entered Romania through the border points, out of whom 12,060 Ukrainian citizens (more by 4.7% than in the previous day). According to the Border Police General Inspectorate, 6,748 Ukrainian citizens entered Romania through the border crossing point with Ukraine (by 18.5% more), and through the one with the Republic of Moldova – 1,321 (by 12.8% more). Since the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian troops, until Saturday, at midnight, 1,402,572 Ukrainian citizens entered Romania.

Ukraine – The Ukrainian army and the Russian troops are involved in heavy battles for the city of Lisiciansk, the last Ukrainian-controlled town in the Luhansk region of the Donbass coal basin (east). Fortunately, the city is not surrounded and it is under the control of the Ukrainian army, said Ruslan Muziciuk, a spokesman for the Ukrainian National Guard. Earlier, Moscow-backed local separatists said the city had been completely surrounded. The fall of Lisiciansk would allow the Russian army to advance towards Slaviansk, about sixty kilometers west, which is already under Russian artillery fire, and towards Kramatorsk, another large city in Donbass, which is bombarded daily. The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says 2,610 Ukrainian villages and towns are under Russian occupation, and several hundred of them have been destroyed and will have to be completely rebuilt. The Ukrainian army, he says, has managed to free 1,027 localities. The Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that the enemy was suffering heavy losses on all fronts.

Sibiu Theater Festival – After nine days of shows, street events, conferences and exhibitions, the International Theater Festival in Sibiu (FITS), in central Romania, comes to an end on Sunday. The last day of FITS offers the public dozens of shows indoors and outdoors, and in closing, starting from 11.15 p.m., a show is scheduled on the city sky, with over 200 drones, music and lasers. The city’s state philharmonic will hold the closing concert of the festival. The event takes place in the Great Square, where tens of thousands of people are expected. In parallel, the audience will be able to watch an aerial dance show by a Spanish-Argentinean company. On Saturday, a special moment took place, in which four international personalities and two Romanians were honored. The late Romanian actor Ion Caramitru, the German choreographer Sasha Waltz, the Polish director Krzysztof Warlikowski, the famous cellist Götz Teutsch, born in Sibiu and settled in Berlin for over 50 years, the French-Belgian playwright Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt and the German director Claus Peymann now have a star on the Star Alley in the Citadel Park in Sibiu.

Tennis – The Spanish player Paula Badosa will take on the Romanian Simona Halep, on Monday, in the round of 16 at the Wimbledon tennis tournament, after passing, on Saturday, the Czech player Petra Kvitova, at the end of two very balanced sets, 7-5, 7 -6 (7/4). In turn, Halep qualified after a clear victory, 6-4, 6-1, against the Polish Magdalena Frech. On April 30, the Romanian player defeated Badosa, 6-3, 6-1, in the second round of the WTA 1,000 tournament in Madrid. Badosa never passed the round of 16 at Wimbledon, reaching this stage at last year’s edition. A former world leader, Halep won the London tournament in 2019 and, one year before, the one at Roland Garros, in France.

Rugby – Romania’s national rugby team left for Uruguay, where it will play, on July 10 and 17, in Montevideo, two test matches against the host country’s team. On Friday, Romania was defeated by the Italian national team 45-13 (19-6), in a test match held in Bucharest. The Romanians are qualified to the 2023 Rugby World Cup, which will take place in France. Romania will play in Group B, and will have matches in Bordeaux and Lille, alongside South Africa, Ireland, Scotland and the team from the Asia-Pacific area that will obtain qualification. Since the inaugural tournament in 1987, Romania has participated in all the editions of the World Cup, except for 2019, when, although it had qualified on the field, it was disqualified for using a naturalized player from Tonga, even though he did not meet the eligibility criteria.

Justice – The President of the High Court of Cassation and Justice of Romania, Corina Corbu, on Sunday conveyed a message on the Justice Day, in which she states that the citizen must be at the center of this system. In her opinion, any reform in the field must ensure an independent, impartial and professional judgment, be the result of strategic thinking, and should take into account the efficiency of the system and its capacity to guarantee the rights of the citizen. The Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă himself advocates a modern, efficient judiciary, accessible to the citizens. In his Justice Day message, the PM says that the government will continue its efforts to complete the process of monitoring Romania through the Mechanism for Cooperation and Verification – MCV, and ensure an act of justice at the level required by the European Union. The National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) considers, in turn, that a clean, corruption-free society is the guarantee of efficiency, performance and development. In a previous statement, the DNA reported that in May, 41 defendants were definitively convicted in corruption cases, for such crimes as bribery, influence peddling and embezzling European funds. Among those who received definitive sentences are persons who, at the time of perpetrating the crimes, held such positions as: senator, mayor of the capital, Bucharest sector mayor, officer with the Emergency Situations Inspectorate, director with the Bucharest City Hall, lawyer, school inspector, university lecturer and commune mayor. According to the source, the sentences ruled by the judges against the 41 defendants vary between 6 months and 11 years in prison. (LS)