November 19, 2022 UPDATE

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 19.11.2022, 18:18

Training. Romanian Gendarmerie parachutists jumped from an altitude of 4,000 m from a hot-air
balloon at a speed of around 200 km/h in a training event held in the Czech
Republic. All units members of the ATLAS group took part, a group created by
the European Union and formed of the most prestigious military and police units
involved in the area of preventing and combating terrorism. According to a
statement from the Romanian Gendarmerie, the training in the Czech Republic
involved high and low altitude opening, both at day and nighttime.

APEC. Most leaders in the Asia-Pacific region
condemned the war in Ukraine in the final declaration of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in
Bangkok, thus joining the chorus of international pressure on Russia. After a
day and a half of talks, the 21 APEC members agreed on a declaration that
criticises the conflict and the global economic disruptions caused by the
Russian military aggression in Ukraine. The declaration also deplores the
impact of the conflict in Ukraine on economic growth, inflation, the supply
channels and energy and food security. The participants stood for free and fair
trade in the Asia-Pacific area. The United States, which was represented at the
summit by vice-president Kamala Harris, took over the APEC rotating presidency for the next year. The
next summit will be held in San Francisco on 12th November 2023.

OSCE.
Russia denounced on Saturday Poland’s decision to bar Russian foreign minister
Sergei Lavrov from a meeting of the Ministerial Council of the OSCE, the
Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, hosted by Poland on 1st
and 2nd December. Sources with the Organisation’s Polish presidency
said the Russian delegation must not include persons sanctioned by the European
Union following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24th February. Since
its creation in 1975, in the middle of the Cold War, to facilitate dialogue
between West and East, the OSCE has been based in Vienna. Its Ministerial
Council, which meets annually, is the Organisation’s decision-making and
governing body.

Football.
Qatar will be hosting the 22nd edition of the Football World Cup,
which gets under way on Sunday and lasts for almost a month, until 18th
December. This is the first such tournament held in the Arab world and the last
to be held in the 32-nation format, with the next one from 2026 to include 48
teams. Because of the extremely high temperatures recorded by Qatar in summer,
the tournament was moved towards the end of the year, being the first World Cup
not be held in May, June or July. The 64 matches will be played on 8 stadiums
in 8 different cities. In the opening match, Qatar are playing Ecuador, while
the final will be held on Qatar’s National Day on 18th December. France
are the current holder of the world title. Romania did not qualify for this
World Cup, but three Romanian referees are taking part, István Kovács, Ovidiu
Artene and Vasile Marinescu. (CM)