July 20, 2024
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 20.07.2024, 14:00
HEAT WAVE – Meteorologists on Saturday issued two alerts, one yellow and one orange, against thunderstorms, in place until Sunday morning for the west and center. Powerful thunderstorms, accompanied by strong wind and hail will be expected during the interval. Several other weather alerts against extreme heat are in effect for Saturday in the south, where temperatures are expected to reach 38 degrees Celsius and the THI will exceed the critical level of 80 units. The capital city is under a code yellow alert against severe heat, with maximum temperatures expected to reach 35 degrees.
AVIATION – Romania on Saturday marked the National Day of Aviation and Air Forces, traditionally held on the Feast Day of Saint Elijah, the patron saint of Romanian aviators. A military and religious ceremony was held in Bucharest on this occasion, with Romanian officials bringing floral tributes to the memory of Romanian aviators. A number of aircraft overflew the proceedings, including F-16 Fighting Falcon, C-130 Hercules, C-27J Spartan, IAR-330 and IAR-99 jets, EC-135 SMURD and S-70M Black Hawk helicopters, a Learjet 75 aircraft of the Interior Defense Ministry, SA-365 Dauphin gunships of the Romanian Intelligence Service, and an Extra 300 aircraft belonging to the Romanian Air Club. Attending the air show was also a C-17 Globemaster aircraft from Hungary and F-18 Hornet fighter jets of the Finnish Air Forces.
TECH OUTAGE – Users and companies in various essential industries around the world, including banking, air travel, mass-media and healthcare are resuming their normal activity on Saturday in the wake of the largest global tech outage in history. A faulty updated to Microsoft Windows systems operated by Crowdstrike grounded thousands of flights, stalled banking and healthcare services, and badly hit other sectors on Friday. The problem was eliminated at its root, although some systems will take a while to automatically return to normal operating parameters, Crowdstrike officials say. Governments and public services were also impacted by the incident, which could prompt lawmakers to pass special laws to protect the population against similar outages in the future. Romania was also impacted by the tech outage, with several international flights reporting delays.
CRIME STATISTICS – In the first quarter of 2024, law enforcement and anti-crime prosecutors organized a total of 900 operations, a third of which were large-scale, up by 2.5% compared to the first six months of 2023, the head of the Directorate for Combating Organized Crime, Cătălin Şerban, told a press briefing on Saturday. The operations targeted 3,400 people, of whom 1,275 were detained for 24 hours. Over 1,000 people were temporarily arrested, up by 8.9% compared to the same period last year. The Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) took part in EUROPOL policy cycles, taking on coordination roles and conducting operations in the fields of human and immigrant trafficking, cyber crime and drug traffucking.
INCIDENT – Romania’s general consul in Manchester maintains permanent contact with the family of Romanian citizens involved in a violent altercation in Leeds, UK, as well as with the local police, the Romanian Foreign Ministry announced after information and images appeared in public space depicting several Romanians involved in the violent clashes. The altercation broke out after child protection services in Leeds attempted to take a number of Romanian minors into state care, after being notified beforehand regarding possible cases of abuse. An inquiry is underway. According to the Foreign Ministry, a number of Romanian citizens involved in the violent events of July 18 have been placed under arrest. As talks continue with representatives of British social services in Leeds, currently managing the investigation targeting the Romanian children and the Romanian family, Romania’s diplomatic representatives have assured local authorities of their full cooperation with a view to identifying a long-term, viable solution to the children’s best interest, in compliance with the observance of provisions adopted by the relevant British authorities.
TENNIS – Romania’s Irina Begu on Friday advanced to the semi-finals of the WTA 250 tournament in Palermo, Italy, totaling some 233 thousand EUR in prizes, after knocking out Ann Li of the USA in straight sets. On Saturday, Begu will take on second-seed Karolina Muchova of Czechia in the semis. Another Romanian player, Jaqueline Cristian, was ousted in the quarterfinals by the top seed Qinwen Zheng of China in straight sets. (VP)
