VISIT The president of Romania Klaus Iohannis will be on an official visit to South Korea on April 22 through 24th, at the invitation of his counterpart, Yoon Suk Yeol. South Korea is the first Asia-Pacific country with which Romania upgraded its diplomatic relations to a Strategic Partnership level, in 2008. During the Romanian president’s visit to Seoul, this Partnership will be consolidated under a document setting the cooperation directions for the next 10 years. Agreements will be signed in fields such as defence, nuclear energy, investments and foreign trade, emergency cooperation and disaster management, culture, mass-media, youth and sports.
ROBOTICS The AICitizens robotics team of the ‘Alexandru Ioan Cuza’ College in Focşani (eastern Romania) is the winner of the ‘First Tech Challenge’ World Championship held in Houston, USA between April 17th and 20th. The Romanian team reached the finals in an alliance with two other teams, The Clueless, from San Diego, California and Texpand, from Cape Town, South Africa, with AICitizens as the captain team. Taking part in the ‘First Tech Challenge’ world robotics championships were over 200 of the world’s top robotics teams.
AID After months of postponements, the US House of Representatives Saturday night endorsed a USD 61 bln aid package for Ukraine. This is part of a bigger, USD 95 bln amount that also comprises security aid for Israel and Taiwan. The bill needs to be passed by the Senate as well, but the Democratic majority in the Senate is in favour of the aid. President Joe Biden has already called on the Senate to rush the vote. The aid comes at an extremely difficult time for Kyiv, which desperately needs weapons and ammunitions to withstand Russia’s growing offensive. The vote was welcomed by Western countries and Ukrainian leaders, but Moscow said the aid would only result in more Ukrainians getting killed because of the regime in Kyiv.
EMPLOYMENT In Romania, the employment rate in the 15 to 64 age bracket was 63% last year, the National Statistics Institute announced. According to recently released data, the employment rate was higher among men (some 72%) than women (54%). The highest employment rate was reported last year among higher education graduates (nearly 90%), as opposed to 37% among people with little formal education. According to statistics, employees still account for 86% of the employed population, whereas self-employed and unpaid family workers only made up 13% of the total employed population. Also, around 83% of job holders were employed in the private sector.
BREXIT The British PM Rishi Sunak rejected a European Commission proposal concerning a post-Brexit agreement enabling British youth to live, study and work in the EU and European youth in UK for up to 4 years, France Presse reports. The scheme was intended for young people aged 18 to 30, who would have benefited from visa exemptions and fair tuition fees. London said however it was unwilling to reopen talks concerning the freedom of movement and the strict regulation of the terms of stay in UK.
MIDDLE EAST Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei Sunday thanked the country’s armed forces for the operation against Israel, urging them to “ceaselessly pursue military innovation and learn the enemy’s tactics”, Reuters reports, quoting the Iranian official news agency. Tehran attacked Israel for the first time on April 13, sending over 300 missiles and drones in retaliation for Israel’s suspected strike on its embassy compound in Damascus on April 1. Subsequently, blasts were reported over the Iranian town of Isfahan on Friday morning, in what sources say was an Israeli attack. Tehran played down the incident and said it did not plan to retaliate, which may prevent the current war in Gaza to spill over throughout the region. (AMP)