July 7, 2022 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 07.07.2022, 19:50

Visit. On a visit to Greece on Thursday, Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca called on his Greek counterpart, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, to support Romania’s accession to Schengen. The message was conveyed during a joint press statement of the two officials. Joining Schengen is a national goal, it is a recognition of the efforts that Romania has made in this regard, efforts that have been quite visible during this period, since the war began in Ukraine, and we have provided all the elements so that the transit of people, goods, cereals from Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova can take place in safe conditions, thus proving that we comply with the requirements of the Schengen acquis, Nicolae Ciuca said. The visit was occasioned by the operationalization of the Greece-Bulgaria gas interconnector, extremely important for the transport network to Europe, through which up to three billion cubic meters of gas could be delivered annually.

Forum. Romanian
parliament will quickly go through the process of ratifying the NATO accession
protocols for Finland and Sweden, the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies,
Marcel Ciolacu, has announced, also mentioning that an extraordinary parliament
session will be convened. Marcel Ciolacu participated in the 22nd edition of
the Inter-Parliamentary Forum on Security, where the Minister of Foreign
Affairs of Ukraine, Dmitro Kuleba, also had a video intervention. The Ukrainian
official pointed out that Russia’s aggression against one’s country is a
phenomenon that comes as a challenge to international security and made a fresh
call for his country to receive heavy armament to stabilize the front line.
Romania remains one of the most active supporters of Ukraine’s European integration
efforts, Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca said in a video message sent to
participants in the Bucharest event.

Resignation. Boris Johnson
announced on Thursday his resignation from the office of Prime Minister of the
United Kingdom, yielding to the pressure coming from ministers and
parliamentarians of the Conservative Party, Reuters reports. It
is clearly now the will of the Parliamentary Conservative Party, that there
should be a new leader of that party and therefore a new prime minister, and
I’ve agreed with Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of our backbench MPs, that the
process of choosing that new leader should begin now, and the timetable will be
announced next week, Johnson told a news conference. Earlier on
Thursday, Boris Johnson announced his resignation as leader of the Conservative
Party, which automatically leads to him losing the prime minister’s seat. Boris
Johnson has agreed to resign amid a major political crisis marked by the
resignation of dozens of his ministers. His term was a turbulent one, dominated
by Brexit, the pandemic and a series of scandals that highlighted the way he
understands to relate to rules, laws and truth, the Radio Romania correspondent
reports from London. Basically, Boris Johnson’s resignation is the result of a
revolt in the Conservative Party, his colleagues accusing him of lying,
arrogance, lack of integrity and competence.

Ukraine. The evacuation of civilians from Slavyansk continues. The town is the new primary target of the Russian
invasion forces in their plan to conquer Donbas. Mayor Vadim Lyah announced
that of the 110 thousand people who inhabited the city before the war, only
20,000 are left. 17 people have died and 67 have been wounded’ since the start
of hostilities, Vadim Lyah said. The city has been under heavy artillery
fire for a few weeks, but the essential infrastructure is still operational.
In the last month, the main water supply line has broken down, and a third of
the city is regularly left without electricity. Much like other local
officials, Mayor Lyah claims Ukrainian forces have repelled the attempts of the
Russian army to get close to Slavyansk and the neighboring town, Kramatorsk,
which serves as the administrative center of the Ukrainian-held part of Donbas.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has accused Ukrainian nationalists of having
organized a toxic chemical attack in the Donetsk region, with the use of large
quantities of chlorine, brought over from a water filtering site. On Sunday,
the Russian army occupied the town of Lysychansk and now claims to be
controlling the entire region of Lahaska, which the Ukrainian authorities
continue to deny.

Swimming. The European Junior
Swimming Championships continue in Otopeni, near capital Bucharest. On
Thursday, Vlad Stefan Stancu won the fifth medal of the Romanian Delegation, in
the 1,500 m freestyle event. On Wednesday, David Popovici grabbed his second
gold medal after winning the 200m freestyle event in 1.45 minutes. Also on
Wednesday, Romania’s 4x100m mix relay team, made up of David Popovici, Patrick
Sebastian Dinu, Bianca Costea and Rebecca Aimee Diaconescu, won silver in the
4x100m freestyle event. On Tuesday, on the first day of the competition, 4x100m
men’s team, made up of David Popovici, Vlad Stancu, Ștefan Cozma and Patrick
Sebastian Dinu, won gold in the freestyle event. A total of 500 athletes from
42 countries are taking part in the competition. Representing Romania are 26
swimmers, 14 boys and 12 girls. Aged 17, David Popovici has recently won the 100m
and 200m world titles.

Tennis. Romanian Simona
Halep (18WTA) lost, on Thursday, in two sets, 6-3, 6-3, to Elena Ribakina (23WTA) of Kazakhstan, in the
semifinals of the Grand Slam tennis tournament at Wimbledon. Former world
leader, Simona Halep won the London tournament in 2019 and, a year before, the
one at Roland Garros, in France. The 2022 final will be played between Elena
Ribakina and the Tunisian Ons Jabeur, world number 2, who defeated, on
Thursday, the German Tatjana Maria (103 WTA) in three sets, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1. This
year’s Wimbledon tournament has a record 40,350,000 pounds in prize money, but the WTA and ATP have announced that they
will not be awarding points due to the British organizers’ decision not to
allow Russians and Belarusians players to attend, following Ukraine’s invasion
by Russia. (MI)