June 16, 2021
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 16.06.2021, 14:11
Covid-19RO. Romanian authorities have announced today 104 new cases of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 in 24 hours, out of almost 30,000 tests performed. There are some one thousand people hospitalized, and 192 patients are in intensive care. At the same time, 71 Covid-19 related deaths were reported, but only 18 in the last 24 hours, the rest dating back to last year and early this year. Meanwhile, the vaccination campaign continues, but at a much slower pace than in previous months. In the last 24 hours, about 32,000 doses of vaccine have been administered, which is a third of the peak periods. Romania has reached almost 4.6 million people immunized, of whom more than 4.2 million with both doses.
Visit. The President of Romania Klaus Iohannis is paying a formal two-day visit to Estonia. Iohannis will have talks with his Estonian counterpart, Kersti Kaljulaid, with PM Kaja Kallas, and with the Parliament speaker, Jüri Ratas. The agenda of talks focuses on strengthening the bilateral relations, including economic and sectoral cooperation, with an emphasis on the digital sector, on fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and on EU-related topics, such as the EU Recovery Plan, the green transition and the digital transition, the EU enlargement process, and developments in the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus. The officials will also discuss the Romanian-Estonian cooperation within NATO, including in terms of security at the Black Sea and Baltic Sea and against the background of the June 14 NATO summit, as well as cooperation as part of the Bucharest 9 format and the Three Seas Initiative.
Ombudsman. The Romanian Parliament gathers today to debate the request for the dismissal of Ombudsman Renate Weber. The right-wing majority (PNL – USR PLUS – UDMR) rejected, yesterday, the institutions activity reports for the last three years. The MPs accuse Renate Weber of violating the countrys constitution and laws, of not supporting the authorities, not taking action to meet the CVMs objective, and not investigating alleged illegal actions by the administration or corruption among civil servants. From the opposition, the Social Democratic Party is considering to notify the Constitutional Court, saying that the Ombudsman did not break the fundamental law.
Government. The Government of Bucharest gathers today to discuss, among other things, the ordinance on school transport. This will allow reimbursement of transport costs for the pupils who study in localities different from those where they live. Also, those living in boarding schools or with other families will benefit from eight round trips for the first semester. The executive will also debate the draft of an emergency ordinance that extends by eight years the period in which social protection measures will be granted to people that lose their jobs through collective redundancies, as a result of mine closures. The agenda also includes a normative act that extends the national health programs for 2017 and 2018 until the end of the month in which 60 days have passed since the date of entry into force of the Budget Law for 2022.
Meeting. US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are meeting for the first time in Geneva today, at a time when the bilateral relationship is rather tense. The two had a first conversation in January, after Joe Biden took office, in which he blamed Moscow for the alleged interference in the US election process, cyber attacks, poisoning the Russian opponent Aleksei Navalny and aggressive behavior towards Ukraine. For some of these cases, the Biden Administration adopted a series of sanctions in April and expelled several Russian diplomats. Analysts do not expect todays summit, which will not be followed by the usual dinner or a joint press conference, to lead to a significant improvement of bilateral ties. The two leaders have stated, however, that they want the outcome of the meeting to be a more stable and predictable relationship, Reuters reports.
Strikes. The Israeli aviation carried out, today, air strikes in Gaza, after Palestinians launched several incendiary balloons from the territory to the south of Israel, according to sources related with the Palestinian security services and some witnesses, FP reports. These are the first major incidents between Israel and Islamists in Gaza since the May 21 truce, which ended 11 days of bombardments, and also the first Israeli strikes against the Palestinian territory since the coming to power of a heterogeneous coalition that ended Benjamin Netanyahus 12-year rule. The strikes and the launching of incendiary balloons, which set fires in southern Israel, took place in parallel with nationalist and far-right demonstrations in East Jerusalem, which gathered more than a thousand people.
Judo. Three Romanian judokas, Andreea Chiţu (cat. 52 kg), Alexandru Raicu (cat. 73 kg) and Vlăduţ Simionescu (cat. +100 kg), managed to qualify for the Tokyo Olympic Games, the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee has announced today. The world ranking was the basis of their qualification. Romania now has 93 athletes qualified for the 2020 Olympics, in 15 sports: swimming, athletics, rowing, football, artistic gymnastics, 3×3 basketball, cycling, wrestling, sport shooting, canoeing, table tennis, boxing, fencing, triathlon and judo. Originally scheduled for last summer, the Tokyo Olympics have been postponed due to the pandemic for July 23-August 8, 2021. (MI)
