July 6, 2022 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 06.07.2022, 20:27

DROUGHT 70% of Romania’s territory has
been affected by drought, Environment Minister Tanczos Barna has announced. He
made an appeal to the population to properly use drinkable water and refrain
from using it to water gardens. Barna has also said the country’s 40 strategic
reservoires are filled 68%, which means they have the necessary amount of
water. And although the Danube has a lower level at its entry into Romania it
doesn’t affect the nuclear power plant in Cernavoda, southern Romania.

TENNIS
Romanian Simona Halep has
qualified for the semifinals of the Grand Slam tournament in Wimbledon. On
Wednesday she secured a two-set win 6-2, 6-4 against the US challenger Amanda Anisimova
and will be next playing Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan. A former world number
one, Halep won the 2019 edition of the Wimbledon tournament and a year earlier
the one in Roland Garros.

COMMEMORATION The 73rd anniversary of the biggest wave of
Stalinist deportations was commemorated on Wednesday in the Republic of Moldova
(ex-Soviet, mostly Romanian-speaking). On the night of July 5-6, 1949, the
Soviet communist regime deported tens of thousands of peasant families,
including women, children, and the elderly. Their fortunes were seized by the
Bolshevik regime. The so-called Operation South was the culmination of mass
terror in Bessarabia and affected about 40,000 people. Last month marked the 81st anniversary of the
first wave of Soviet deportations from Bessarabia and northern Bukovina, when
25,000 people were taken to Siberia and Kazakhstan. Less than a year after the
annexation, following an ultimatum, the repressive bodies displaced, from the
night of June 12 to 13 and until June 22, 1941, tens of thousands of
Bessarabians, most of them ethnic Romanians. The wealthiest people, as well as
those who were perceived as a threat to the USSR, were taken to the most remote
regions of the former Soviet Union. According to historians, the deportations
were aimed at destroying the local elites, so that, later, the occupants would
have those left at home accept the collectivization and expropriation of goods.

SPORTS Romanian swimmer David Popovici on Wednesday won his second gold
medal, in the finals of the 200 meter freestyle race of the European Junior
Swimming Championships underway in Otopeni, southern Romania. In the
competition’s first day on Tuesday, the Romanian team won the first gold in the
4×100 meter relay event after an exciting race against Great Britain. The
competition in Otopeni, close to the capital city Bucharest has brought
together 500 athletes from 42 countries and Romania is being represented by 26
swimmers. We recall that David Popovici, 17, is the new double world champion
in the 100 and 200 meter freestyle races.

(bill)