28 September, 2020

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 28.09.2020, 13:55

Elections. According to partial results, the incumbent Bucharest mayor
and Social Democratic Party member Gabriela Firea lost to Nicuşor Dan, an independent candidate
supported by the ruling National Liberal Party and the Save Romania Union. With
95% of votes counted, Dan has won 42.78% and Firea 37.95%. More than 46% of
Romanian voters went to the ballots on Sunday to elect 41 county council
presidents, over 1,300 county councillors, 40,000 local councillors and some
3,200 mayors. Around the country, the Social Democratic Party is believed to
have won 20 county council seats, the National Liberal Party 17 and the
Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania 4. The east and the south of
the country are still dominated by the Social Democrats and the west by the
Liberals. The Save Romania Union has won the mayor races in the cities of
Timisoara (in the west), Brasov (in the centre), and Bacau (in the east). The
candidate of the Democratic Forum of Ethnic Germans in Romania has won a new
term in Sibiu, in the centre.

Coronavirus. 1,271
new coronavirus were reported on Monday in Romania,
taking the total number of cases to almost 124,000. 99,344 have recovered. 30 new deaths were also
reported on Monday, with the death toll now standing at 4,748. Globally, the pandemic has caused more than 1 million deaths
and over 33.3 million infections, according to worldometers.info. Some 25
million people have recovered. The worst hit regions in terms of number of
deaths are Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, the United States and
Canada. In the US alone, infections have passed 7.3 million and the death toll
is nearing 210,000. India also topped 6 million cases on Monday. According to
World Health Organisation officials, coronavirus fatalities could double to 2
million before a successful vaccine is widely used, and this figure could be
even higher without coordinated measures to contain the pandemic.

Conflict. The European Union and
Russia have called for an immediate halt to the armed conflict between Armenia
and Azerbaijan following disputes over the
breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
In Bucharest, the Romanian foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu has described the
situation as worrying and urged Armenia and Azerbaijan to resume political dialogue to find solutions through
peaceful means. The two former Soviet states are accusing each other for the
violent clashes. Armenia says Azerbaijan on Sunday carried out air and
artillery attacks targeting civilian positions and killing two people. Azerbaijan
denies the accusation and says its forces launched a counter-offensive against
the Armenian forces that bombed Azeri military and civilian positions, killing
local residents. The two countries in the Caucasus are engaged in a
long-standing dispute over Nagorno-Karabah,
a region on Azeri territory but inhabited by a majority Armenian ethnic
population. The conflict has caused concern in the West, which fears it could
increase instability in the South Caucasus, an area which serves as a corridor
for the pipelines carrying crude oil and gas to the world markets.

Tennis. World no. 72 Irina Begu and world no. 2 Simona Halep, both from
Romania, will be facing each other in the second round at the French Open,
which got under way on Sunday. In the first round, Begu defeated the Swiss
player Jil Teichmann, ranked 54th in the world, in three sets, while
Halep defeated Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo in straight sets. Halep has so far
won all of her seven previous matches against Begu, most recently in August in
the semifinals of the Prague tournament, which she went on to win. Halep is in
fact seeded first at Roland Garros. Eight Romanian players are in competition
in the women’s doubles: Raluca Olaru, Monica Niculescu, Irina Begu, Andreea
Mitu, Irina Bara, Ana Bogdan, Patricia Ţig and Sorana Cîrstea. In the men’s
doubles, the Romanian-Dutch pair Horia Tecău and Jean-Julien Rojer, who last year
reached the quarterfinals at Roland Garros, are seeded 12th this
year and will be playing the Chilean-Spanish pair Cristian Garin and Pedro
Martinez in their opening match.